


Colour of Fate

by SammyHerondale



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Female Naruto, First Meeting, Jinchuuriki-centric, Seer, Unrequited Crush, chunin exam, genin days, not annoying Sakura, powerful naruto but not too much, smart naruto, understanding sasuke... ish
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-12
Updated: 2018-11-17
Packaged: 2019-02-14 00:09:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 28
Words: 47,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12995523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SammyHerondale/pseuds/SammyHerondale
Summary: An energetic blonde female meets a red haired psychopathic sociopath who enjoys killing more than interacting, yet she doesn't take no for an answer. She won't stop till she has learned more about him, till he learns more about her. Till he learns he is worthy of love and being loved, no matter how 'good' the person was.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Another Shade of Blue](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12105849) by [Madrigal_in_training](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Madrigal_in_training/pseuds/Madrigal_in_training). 



> Unlike my other stories, this will have half the words so roughly 1500 per chapter and I sadly won't be updated a lot. But as with my other stories, I will say IF I ever wish to drop this story. In my own opinion there isn't enough Female Naruto/Gaara fanfics out there so I'm adding to that short list.

Kurama was annoying her.

This wasn’t something new to the blonde haired Uzumaki. Ever since the ‘defection’ of Itachi Uchiha she had formed a contract with the demon. Every now and again she would release part of him into a forest, or the valley of end, at dawn and he would return at dusk into her seal.

This contract also allowed him to constantly talk to her, whether or not she went into her mindscape, much to her chagrin.

In return, however, he gave her many gifts. One was merging their chakra together, allowing him to feel her surroundings as if they were his own. The second, he would teach her the jutsus he had witnessed other ‘ningen’, as he called them, had used. The third was helping her to master her natural abilities such her sensory abilities. The fourth and last was more of a side-effect of merging with someone with Ashura’s soul so young; if she tried hard enough, she could see images of the future.

The last was dangerous as it often left her light headed and, on the occasion, made her sick.

**I’m telling you, let me out and allow me to have a fight with the Uchiha. It’ll show him to respect us then.**

_It will also show him to the Tori gates, so no thank-you. I don’t mind how he is now… well I do mind but it’s workable._

**Brat!**

_What?! I didn’t do anything!_

**No not you! I feel an ominous presence. Nothing more powerful than myself of course, because no one is more powerful than the almighty kyuubi no kitsune!**

_Get on with it Kurama!_

**There’s something dangerous not far from us!**

_I live in a hidden village. Nearly everyone here is dangerous one way or another_. She rolled her eyes at his idiocy.

She went forward to intercept Sakura’s fist before it Konohamaru’s head. “I wouldn’t advise hitting his Sakura. Lest you forget, he is the grandson of the old man and has his own ANBU guard.” She then added, “And I’m sure he didn’t mean it. Besides, he’s a kid with no awareness of the opposite gender.”

“I did too mean it big sis! She has a big forehead, flat chest and wears too much pink! Even her hair is pink! At least you look pretty, big sis!”

Narutos sweat dropped. He really shouldn’t have said that. “Konohamaru, run.” The boy was wise enough to listen to her and start running, Sakura following after him, anger clear in her eyes.

She sighed and looked towards Moegi and Udon, “I’m gonna go after them. You guys come along as well.” With that she chased after them, only to stop when she saw a boy in a cat outfit and purple paint on his face and black eyes, with something strapped round his back, holding Konohamaru by his shirt as Sakura said something to him.

“Not a chance. He still needs to apologise to me for bumping into me.” He must have noticed Naruto by her bright choice of clothing as he smirked, and said, “On second thought… I’d be willing to let him go if you agree to go on a date with me, blondie.”

He leered at her chest causing Naruto to huff in annoyance. She really shouldn’t get annoyed by it, after all, she had already started in her specialization; seduction.

His comment caused all eyes to go onto her, which was when she noticed the blonde standing next to the pervert. She gave her a once over and decided she was a kunoichi who actually worked for her title.

She wore a lilac dress with a mesh shirt underneath with a large fan strapped to her back. Her hair was pulled into four ponytails, her eyes green and she wore her headhand around her neck and looked carefully at the Sigel carved into it.

Sunagakure.

She recalled a conversation the sandaime had had with her regarding the arrival of the Kazekages children some time before the chunin exams being, however she also recalled him saying there were three of them, not two.

She was bought out of her musings when Konohamaru started to speak up, “Like I’d let you go out with my sister! She’s too good for you, you big old pervert!”

The boy in the cat outfit paid no mind to what he said, too busy staring at her, “I’d suggest you put him down. It wouldn’t be wise to harm the grandson of the sandaime hokage, especially if his ANBU detail aren’t far behind. You’re likely to get into trouble, even if you are the children of the Kazekage.”

Both the siblings eyes grew wide ever so slightly, clearly they didn’t believe anyone her age would know who they were.

Just as the cat guy released Konohamaru, a pebble hit the elder’s hand, causing the four teenagers to look up only to see Sasuke Uchiha sitting on a branch.

“What brings ninja from Sunagakure to Konohagakure, I wonder?”

“Big sis, why couldn’t you do that?” whispered Konohamaru behind her legs.

“You should always look for a diplomatic way out of things and not the violent way out. The violent way out tends to cause wars.” She whispered back.

They started to talk but Naruto was suddenly thrust into a very short conversation with her demon.

**Brat that feeling is here again! I know what it is now and I’m not very happy about it!**

_Oh hush you._

The cat boy took off the thing that was strapped to his back, which Naruto assumed was a puppet since she recalled one of the kazekages children being a puppet user.

He was about to speak up when a gravelly voice spoke up, “Konkuro. Enough.” All heads turned wide eyed at the boy who spoke. He was upside-down on the opposite side of the tree Sasuke was on. 

He used a sand shunshin to appear next to the puppet weilder and Naruto got a chance to really see what he was wearing.

A simple black outfit with a mesh shirt underneath and a white fabric going around him. The thing that really caught her attention was the large gourd that was held by a thick brown strap. He had red hair and the katakana for love in the same shade of red on his forehead. One feature of his face that drew her in; his teal shade eyes that held the same pain she had felt in her early childhood.

**Why do all three of the kazekages children have something strapped onto their backs?!**

Sasuke jumped down and landed beside her, and began to speak to her however to sensory abilities were on the fritz.

Naruto could feel his chakra. It held two parts. One was confused and… loving. The other part was chaotic. The chaotic part felt familiar. As if she was seeing a long lost friend.

Before she could properly assess what that meant as images forced their way into her mind:

_She stood on a high building, looking at a sand filled village with an arm around her._

_A red head, smiling across from her as they shook hands._

_The same red head holding her as she wept._

As per usual her head started to throb as an after effect, yet she didn’t allow that to show. She was far too fascinated to pay much attention to her pain anyway. This stranger clearly paid an important part of her future yet he also seemed to play a part in her past.

Naruto was curious. And when Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze was curious, she would go to the ends of the earth to get answers and sate her curiosity.

It was when Kurama spoke, that she realised why he was familiar to her, **He has a tailed beast sealed inside him. Shukaku. The one tailed tanuki ‘belonging’ to the sand. I see his madness hasn’t depleted at all over the past generation.**

The conversation was near its end, so the three siblings started to leave, causing her heart rate to spike up.

She, however, refused to let them leave without finding out their names first.

“Wait!” all heads turned to look at her and if it was any other occasion, she would have turned pink from the attention yet she paid no heed to them. “What’s your name?”

The cat boy smirked and replied, “Konkuro-”

She cut him off as she shook her head, “Not you. The red head.” She pointed at him for good measure in case the cat boy had red hair under his hat.

Teal eyes met her own sapphire blue ones. She thought they were a strange colour, teal, not green nor blue, not even turquoise. Those same eyes stared at her with a heated intensity that made her proud she hadn’t turned even brighter. The owner of those cold yet smouldering eyes replied none the less, “Gaara no Subaku. And what are your names?”

Sasuke being the ever so pretentious teme that he was thought Gaara was talking to him, “I’m Sasuke Uchiha.”

Gaara paid no attention to him as he stared into the young blondes blue eyes, making her face heat up again, “N-Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze.” She mentally berated herself for stuttering as Kurama started to snicker in her mind.

Konkuro and the other blonde’s eyes widened at the proclamation, her last name was very well known so it wasn’t surprising, she was the daughter of Minato Namikaze the yondaime hokage. Not that people outside the village actually knew that.

She distinctively felt Sakura hitting the back of her head in a smack for telling another village her name but she, once again, paid no mind to the pain, “We’ll be entering the chunin exams as well. Just so you know.”

Gaara looked to her and Sasuke as he replied, “Make sure neither of you lose before I get to fight you. I will feed your blood to mother.” With that the three siblings left. It was as they left that Naruto remembered the eldest siblings name; Temari.

 

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

Kurama groaned.

**Now Shukaku is gender-bending! He always was an idiot. It’s no wonder no one besides Suna’s ningen take him seriously!**

_The world will have a natural disaster if you ever took anyone seriously, Kurama._

**I take ningen and others seriously. Ask Matatabi and Gyuuki. But there are people, like the Uchiha, who just need to be wiped off the face of the planet.**

_You and your hatred for the Uchiha._

**If you were forced out of a seal you had been in for many years only to be controlled by a red eyed, black haired freak who has anger issues, and being forced to do his bidding, you also would seek vengeance.**

_You sound like Sasuke when you swear vengeance._

**Did you really just compare me to the Uchiha brat? I dislike you now, brat. I’m going to sleep.**

With that their conversation ended as her team then looked to her, Sakura talking first, “Why would you tell them we’re entering the exam when we haven’t filled out any forms?”

“Simple. Kakashi sensei will most likely give us the papers sometime this week to fill in. We have the Uchiha heir and the Uzumaki- Namikaze heir on our team. People will expect us to participate in this exam even if we are rookies. Plus, we’re the students of Kakashi Hatake. I can only imagine the anger of the people if they heard me and Sasuke, and you by default, weren’t entering the exam.”     

All five sets of eyes were on her and each ones mouth all yelled the same thing, at the same time, “How could you tell them your last name?! Do you wanna die?!” she covered her ears at the volume of their combined voices.

She may have a high pan tolerance, but she had sensitive hearing and the yelling caused her to hear an annoying sound in the back of her ear, she couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was exactly but instead, chose to distract herself.

“Give me a break. They’re the children of the yondaime kazekage, it won’t be hard for them to get information of the daughter of the yondaime hokage now will it?” she raised a brow and four out of five faces became sheepish, the last simply glared. “And another thing! Sasuke! You could have caused a diplomatic issue by attacking the three of them! You should be happy the youngest sibling did what he did, or we would _all_ be in trouble!” the Uchiha gritted his teeth and looked away. He didn’t like to be told off, but knew he couldn’t attack _her_.

He looked back to her and squinted his eyes, “And how exactly did you know they were the kazekages children? They didn’t introduce themselves to us.”

All heads turned to look at her with a curious gaze, though Sasukes was well-hidden, “The old man mentioned they’d be coming some time before the chunin exams and I just so happened to remember when I saw their headbands.”

Clapping her hands she smiled a sickeningly sweet smile, “Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon. Time to see how well the three of you have gotten in fuinjutsu.” The young trio’s eyes grew wide, one in excitement, one in shock and the other in horror.

**You go through far too many emotions in one go, brat. It give even me, the great kyuubi no kitsune, a whiplash.**

_I love the casual entrance of your title there Kurama, really, I do._

When Konohamaru tried to escape a tail came out and grabbed him as they all went to the Sarutobi training grounds, leaving Sasuke and Sakura behind. Once there she placed Konohamaru down and allowed the tail to recede, once again the trio stared in amazement, no matter how many times they saw Naruto allow one or more of her tails to come out then away, they never recived answers for how she did it or where they came from. Instead each time they asked she would get them to do something.

“Right, I have about an hour and a half till I need to go and meet with sensei. I wasn’t you to show me your storage seals and any flash tag seals you’ve made. Then trial them out with me here.” She instructed as she took a seat on the round in front of them.

Each of them went through their pouches she had forced them to wear. There had been an attempted kidnapping the previous year on the three of them in order to get to the sandaime. Of course the attempt was thwarted as none of the kidnappers expected a jinchuriki to be with them. The pouches contained a few kunai and ninja wire, but also explosion tags, flash seals and other seals to make for an easy escape.

She had gone far enough to place a hiraishin seal on each piece of their clothing and they made sure whenever they bought something new, they would bring it to her to place the seal on it.

The three of their seals were very messily drawn but not bad for children their age. She then proceeded to see how each of their effectiveness was, and was delighted to see they all worked.

“Right, well done on getting each of these seals to work. It takes time and effort to get fuinjutsu to work and even then, not everyone can do it.” They all waited patiently for the ‘but’ or ‘however’ to come. “However, your handwriting needs to be improved on. It doesn’t need to be anything fancy like mine or my old mans, but it does need to be more eligible. If you get even the slightest thing wrong, the aftereffects can be lethal and even life threatening. So that’s what you’re gonna work on before our next fuinjutsu session. Of course I don’t expect it to be perfect by then, at least just a little improved.”

She then gave each of them some blank scrolls and ink to start working on their handwriting, happy none had complained about it.

She remembered the first she had met Konohamaru. She was eight, a year after she had moved into her apartment as many people took to breaking in and damaging her things when she wasn’t in.

The old man had put an end to that, however, when he announced that she was the yondaimes child. Majority of the people stopped hating her, but for those who feared her or had lost someone without being to move on, the announcement made no difference. It was then he had taken to arresting those people who tried to harm her.

She had then moved into the Sarutobi estate and became the ‘big sister’ to Konohamaru. She still used her apartment, just not for living in. She used it as a research lab, as Kurama calls in ‘den of evil’. He also had more colourful descriptions but hardly spoke them.

**Your little den reminds me an awful lot like Orochimaru.**

_Did you compare me to the pedo hebi?_

**Marely making a notice of who you tend to behave as.**

_I thought I’d get compared to Jiraiya since I have a tendency to act like a pervert. But then again, I do drink a lot of alcohol so I could be compared to Lady Tsunade…_

**So you admit to committing the three shinobi taboos?**

_I never denied them, fuzzball._

**Do not call the almighty Kyuubi no kitsune, fuzzball! Or I will tear the flesh off your bones and eat it for tea!**

_Sure… how would you get past my dads’ ‘infernal’ seal, as you call it?_

**Details, details. None of them matter to me.**

_Aha. Keep tellin’ yourself that, Kurama._

 

\-----------

 

Konkuro was getting on her nerves. For the last hour he had spoken none stop about the blonde girl we had met earlier today and it was driving Temari crazy.

It was a wonder Gaara hadn’t snapped and attacked him yet. The youngest sibling, was after-all, not known for his patience but for his murder record.

She snuck a glance at the red head and was surprised to see he wasn’t in a very foul mood. He was in a foul mood, just not as bad as it had been a few hours ago.

She wondered if he had killed someone whilst he was away from the two elder siblings, but told that thought to go away. There would be traces of the scent of blood on him, yet she could not smell any. Years of being with Gaara as he killed had made her and many others sense of smell for a lot better.

She wondered what was capable of getting Gaara… _distracted_. That wasn’t the word. But at the same time, there was no other word to describe the boy.

“I don’t think even the sky or the waterfalls in Takigakure have a shade of blue as… mystifying as hers.” Said Konkuro for the fifth time within the hour.

It was that specific time that Gaara had snapped out of whatever was distracting his and hit the back of Konkuro’s head with a sand whip, causing the older boy to go flying and hit a wall.

She cringed slightly, and went to help yet did not rebuke Gaara for doing so. Another five seconds and she’d have hit him with her fan. 

 


	3. Chapter 3

Naruto sighed as they entered the building of the first exam. She had just told Sasuke not ten minutes ago to not cause any trouble, to make sure they went unseen. Did the teme listen?

No.

Instead he goes and starts a fight with Rock Lee. Student of Might Gai, both had terrible fashion senses, yet were brilliant in taijutsu. And the Uchiha just had to go and choose to fight in taijutsu.

“Hey, Sasuke. Since you’re having a spar with this guy, you don’t need me around, right?”

“Go ahead, hime. This shouldn’t be long.” He replied, not looking at her as he did so.

**Well the Uchiha is correct, it won’t take long. I estimate it will take them four minutes to reach a place to fight, three for details on the match and introductions then two maybe three minutes for the Uchiha to have his ass handed to him. I should thank the ningen who is going to do that.**

_You know Kurama, you remind me of this old saying, ‘hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’._

**First you compare me to an Uchiha now to woman. I do not intend to forgive you for that, foolish ningen.**

_Nuh uh. I’m a jinchuriki, not a ningen. And another thing. The day you forgive someone, is the day I let you free for a whole week and tsunamis hit Konoha. Never!_

**I ought to skewer you where you stand, yet I would like to see my vessel become a chunin or even jonin before I do. This way it will show they true essence of my power!**

Kurama ranted on for a while as he laughed sadistically. Deciding to ignore him, she sighed and gave Sakura a faint smile as she made her way upstairs to the real room of the exam, not surprised to see Kakashi sensei there as well.

“Hey sensei! What’re you doni’ here?” she asked when she wasn’t too fa from him.

He sharply closed his book and pocketed it, “Here to greet my adorable little genin as they go into a dangerous exam… Where are Sasuke and Sakura?”

“Sasuke challenged Gai sensei’s student, Rock Lee, to a taijutsu spar and Sakura’s cheering him on.” She tattled. Any chance to get the son of a police-officer, late or not, was a golden opportunity that one did not simply miss out on.

Kakashi groaned behind his mask before he shook his head disapprovingly, “Did you try to stop him?”

“Is it at all humanly possible to get an Uchiha to not fight? If there is, I wanna know. Now.” She looked her sensei in the eye as he did her. After a few seconds they both smacked their foreheads.

“Well, you may as well go on inside. I’ll stay here to greet the rest of the team.” She nodded and when she touched the door handle to enter, he called out to her, “And Naruto. Show them what the Uzumaki- Namikaze heiress can do.”

She didn’t turn around, yet she knew he knew she heard him. She gave a light smirk as she opened the door, as she did so, held back a groan.

There was too many people in the room all at once with… hostile and restless chakras. She blocked them all and decided to just reach out to any chakras that were familiar to her and was pleasantly surprised to feel team 8 and 10 in the room with her.

She decided she wouldn’t go up to them just yet as she felt three other chakra signatures that were familiar. One in particular seemed to get her very happy.

She looked up and made her way to the three unsuspecting siblings. She stopped half way and decided to give them a freight and shunshined behind Temari, hugging her from behind.

The fellow blonde was about to attack whoever it was that thought they could jump on her before Naruto spoke, “Hey Temari. Konkuro. Gaara.” Although she was addressing all of them she only looked at the teal eyes of Gaara no Subaku.

“Naruto Uzumaki…” he gave a short glance around the room which caused small smile to come onto her face. He seemed to realise he shouldn’t tell people her last name.

It was most likely because he wanted to kill her himself and not allow anyone else the satisfaction of killing her, but in Naruto’s crazy mind, it made her happy he was so… territorial of her. She heard Kurama groan at her logic yet chose to ignore him.

She got off of Temaris back, which due to her large fan was very uncomfortable. “Sorry about that guys. Didn’t mean to scare ya.”

“You didn’t.” replied Konkuro as he allowed his gaze to drift down to Naruto’s chest before his eyes found her own, only to see she was looking at Gaara’s cold expression again.

“Your chakra signatures said different. They all jumped slightly at my unexpected arrival.” She allowed her gaze to drift to the other siblings, her eyes full of humour before looking back at Gaara. “How are you finding your stay in Konohagakure, Gaara? Compared to your siblings who came here years ago, it’s your first time here, if I’m correct?”

He hesitated before replying, “You are correct. As for my stay… it is fine.”

Nodding her head she internally smiled, yet his siblings seemed awfully shocked that their sibling had spoken at all. “I trust you’ve been sleeping well? I heard back in Suna you suffered from insomnia but that doesn’t seem to be the case now?” truthfully, Naruto had made Shukaku stay mostly quiet whilst in Konoha if he ever wanted to be fed human blood again.

She wanted to get close to Gaara for personal reasons and professional. The professional being, she was a fuinjutsu master and wanted to fix the weak seal Gaara had on him. She would only be able to do that if she got close to him.

“You are correct.” He replied once again, and this time there was a glint of an emotion she couldn’t decipher as it was gone as soon as it came, expression going to stiff the teme could be proud and envious.       

“There are many places here in Konoha that are hot tourist spots that are also frequented by locals. Have you had a chance to see them?”

The reply she received was his glare fading yet his expression to remain cold.

It was then Naruto realised he probably thought she was acting like a child with a new toy. Play with it then throw it away. It was often how jinchuriki were treated; children would play with them but later toss them aside as if they were worthless.

She had a similar upbringing till she turned 8 in which everyone would try to be friends with her due to her title. She made friends with those people as to not seem rude yet only stayed close to those who would play with her in her class.

“Have you been to the forest not far from out hot springs? There’s a beautiful waterfall in the centre. It used to be a place Lord Hashirama used to find his wife, Lady Mito, visiting often. He used his Mokuton and created the forest around the waterfall as an anniversary present to her. The agriculture varies from bonsai to cherry blossom trees, and since the shodaime used his jutsu, none of them ever wilt. I go there every so often with Konohamaru. It’s an absolutely beautiful place.”

“No…” he reluctantly replied.

Smiling she continued, “We should go there sometime during your stay.”

“Are you asking Gaara out on a date?!” asked the shell shocked siblings causing several glares to look their direction. None of them paid any heed to them, too used to the fiercer glare of one of their team mates.

This time it was her turn to hesitate, “Well… yes and no. I would like to go on a date with your brother, but my offer reaches out to the two of you also. I just thought he might be a bit more relaxed if he wasn’t around his siblings as he went about his day.” She shrugged her shoulders before looking back into confused teal eyes, “So, whadya say?”

His reply came without missing a beat, “No.”

Externally her smile remained the same yet internally she spirits wilted slightly, _Kurama, am I going about this wrong?_

**I cannot say. Mito nor Kushina had to do this much to get their lovers to pay attention. Perhaps he doesn’t think you’re very much compared to him. You did try your very hardest to become last of your class, even if your classmates and teachers knew you were the brightest one amongst them.**

_Kurama, I’m shocked! I never would have thought you’d give me a compliment._

**That was not a compliment to you brat. It shows my brilliance when my host is more knowledgeable than those of their age.**

“Well, you’ll still be seeing a lot more of me during your stay here in Konoha, so maybe you’ll change your mind.”

“Go away, Uzumaki, or I will allow my mother to feast on your blood.”

Naruto’s smile remained on her face yet there was an edge to her tone as she replied, “You and your mother can try, and fail. The two of you will end up joining the list of people who have tried to kill me. To today the count is 29.”

Temari and Konkuro’s eyes grew wide at what she said. Not surprising really, it wasn’t often you heard someone casually brush off a threat like that and say they have had people trying to kill them that many time.

**It is actually 31 times brat you forgot those two times you were nearly killed at a baby.**

_Ah yes, I forgot about those._

She then felt the chakra signatures of her teammates and decided it was time to go to them, the teme’s pride seemed to be severely wounded.

“Well, it was nice talking to you guys, but my team finally got here, so it’s best I go to them now. Good luck on your first exam!” she waved to them as she made her way to the other 8 rookies that had gathered around a silver haired male whose chakra felt very annoying.


	4. Chapter 4

She made her way over to where her team and classmates were. They were all huddled around a silver haired male with glasses. He also wore a high collar, which in Naruto’s book meant he was either a jerk or a douche. Maybe both. The only people who weren’t either of those things and wore high collars were Itachi and Shisui.

She took a discreet sniff and noted he smelt an awful lot of snake, causing her to shiver in horror. The only other person who smelt like that was Anko Mitarashi who scared the crap out of Naruto. She was a lot more… wild than the queen of pranksters, yet that made her a good person to talk to every once in a while.

“Yo! Did you guys start the reunion party without me?” she asked as she jumped onto Kiba’s back, a large grin on her face matching the one Kiba gave her.

“It’s not much of a party without our queen prankster, now is it Naru?” he raised a hand to ruffle her hair, something he had taken to doing for years, but since he had been doing it for so long she simply cuffed him around the neck and ruffled his hair instead, causing his to yelp and Akamaru to bark.

“Kabuto over here offered to show us some of his ninfo cards.” Explained Hinata as she looked Naruto up and down. Which caused her to hide behind Sasuke. She liked Hinata like a friend but really, _really_ didn’t like how those pupil-less eyes took in her form whenever they met. Naruto was by no means a homophobe like some people in the village, yet she didn’t like to entertain the idea of _being_ with any of her friends. 

The silver haired guy, Kabuto, kneeled onto the ground and took out a deck of cards. Naruto got a bad feeling from him and her bad feelings usually ended in a high note.

Sasuke went forward with a pierced gaze, “Gaara of the sand, and Rock Lee of Konoha.”

“Oh you already know names. That makes it too easy.” He placed a hand over the deck and swiped across them a moment later, taking two random cards with him.

He left a dramatic pause, causing Kurama to roll his eyes. **He seems to be a drama queen to an extent**.

“Here they are.” He held the two cards in front of his face.

“Please show me.” Naruto blanched. Sasuke said please.

“First is Rock Lee. He’s one year older than you guys. His mission experience, 20 D ranks and 11 C ranks. His squad leader is Gai… In just this one year his taijutsu has drastically improved but… his other skills have not improved at all. Last year, he’d attracted attention as Genin rookie with his ability, but didn’t participate in the chunin exam. This is his first time taking the exam, same as you guys. Tenten and Neji Hyuuga are his team mates.”

Naruto’s head turned to look at Hinata confused as she looked sad, “Hey Hinata? Isn’t Neji your cousin? He was rookie of the year last year right?”

She received a curt nod from the bluenette. “Next is Gaara no Subaku. His mission experience, 8 C ranks and 1 B rank. As a genin! Sadly since he is a genin from a foreign nation I have no further information of him.”

**Foolish ningen. My vessel has completed an S rank before she had been made a genin! Then she completed an A rank mission as well.**

_Yes, yes Kurama we get it. This isn’t a competition of who has done the best missions. More so a test of what we have learned during out genin time._

**Yet I doubt Shukaku’s jinchuriki was given those high level missions by accident like yours had been. Despite being the jinchuriki to the almighty kyuubi no kitsune the old fool still gives you reasonable missions. The kazekage has no such problem though it would seem**.

Naruto had been too busy paying attention to Kurama she hadn’t seen the attack that reached Kabuto. It seemed the guy with a musical note on his headband had made a noise through his arm and broke his glasses. Something only she and perhaps Kiba and Shino would have noticed, with their sensitive hearing, although Shino’s was mostly via his bugs.

Kabuto then fell to the floor, and Sakura being the kindred spirit she was, sometimes, went to help him up with the help of Hinata. Yet Naruto’s focus was solely on the music guys.

 **Sound ninja silly ningen. They are from the hidden sound village.** (otogakure).

 _Jinchuriki not ningen_. She retorted by instinct. 

Before she could think anything further a loud sound resonated across the room as well as a large smoke screen as a loud yet very familiar voice yelled, “Silence! Degenerates!” his voice echoed across the room as all eyes went onto the smoke that was slowly receding. And once it did, she could see the faces of Ibiki and several other chunin, including the gate guards, “Sorry to keep you waiting… I am Ibiki Morino, proctor for the first test of the chunin exam.” He pointed to the heavily bandaged slouched male that had help attack Kabuto, “You from the Hidden sound village! No doing as you please before the exam!”

She decided to tune the rest out as images suddenly flooded her mind, causing her to hold her head.

A forest. A large snake. A tower. Blood. Yellow silted eyes. Sasuke covered in black seals. Sakura being held by her hair…

She held back a gasp, barely. It was the first time she had received so many images at once. She usually only got perhaps three yet this time it had been 7. Something dangerous was going to happen.

She doubted it was a mere coincidence that she would receive so many future images the same time she felt a lump of dread settle in her stomach. There was also worry coating her heart yet forced all her feelings down. She was a genin and shouldn’t allow this sort of thing to get to her. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t act accordingly.

She looked up only when she felt herself being tugged, by Sakura and Sasuke. Both of them giving her annoyed glances yet chose not to say anything. They were unaware of her powers, yet knew she had bad headaches for short periods of time.

She nodded to the two of them and they made their way into the hall of the first round, being seated by numbers. She just so happened to be placed next to Hinata… lovely.

She listened to Ibiki play with their minds- she meant tell them the rules. She found it very odd that only two points would be deducted if you were caught cheating but brushed that to the side. She wouldn’t cheat.

When she turned her test paper around, she was shell shocked and did little to hide it. The questions were far too hard for the average genin to answer. Out of everyone here, she could guarantee that a maximum of ten people could answer them. Shikamaru the lazy teme would get it if he bothered. She herself believed she would only be able to get at least 7 of them correct… she believed Sakura and Hinata would be able to get some as well… but this was really ridiculous.

She answered what she could and then said, _Kurama. You’re an old and powerful entity who was held captive in two wives of kage… do you know the answer to the rest of these by any chance?_

He quirked a hidden brow, **Well… since you put it so nicely…**

_Wait. You’re not going to argue with me on this one?_

**I do believe having me sealed inside you should come with some benefits outside of our agreements… that and this exam is based solely on one’s cheating abilities.**

_Wait, it is?_

**You didn’t notice? Everyone, including Shukaku’s jinchuriki are cheating…**

She quickly wrote down the answers to the rest of the questions as Kurama had dictated and turned it around as she looked around the room to see how people were cheating.

They were trying, but merely not being discreet enough. Ino had used her mind transfer jutsu, if the limp look she was supporting was an indicator. Sasuke and Neji were using their doujutsu kekkei-genkai but so had Hinata. Lee seemed to be using mirrors with TenTen and Gaara was using a sand eye. Kiba was using Akamaru and Shino his bugs. Temari seemed intelligent enough to not require cheating, or at least she was smart enough to not get caught. Konkuro however seemed to be using a puppet… it was astounding that no one had been disqualified, especially since hardly anyone in her year was being discreet.

Just as she thought that a kunai flew by her and embedded itself into the desk behind her, the person was subsequently told to leave the room with his team as well. Apparently some people who cheated were just that obvious about it. At least the rookies were being creative about it.

Near the end of the test Konkuro asked to leave for the toilet and she noticed he was taking his puppet with him. Nothing suspicious about that what so ever.

She looked around and saw quite a few people had answered most if not all the questions and towards the last few minutes Ibiki started to speak, it was then that Konkuro chose to appear. **(A/N the rest is canon. I’ve not changed it, minus Naruto giving the inspirational speech, there is none of that here.)**

Very few teams had managed to pass the first exam and as she was about to release a sigh of relief the window was broken open and a large banner opened across the room being held by kunai embedded into the ceiling. Anko Mitarashi landed straight in front of the banner through the window.

Naruto could practically hear Ibiko’s groans of annoyance despite him not verbally doing so.

Anko’s outward sadistic behaviour hadn’t changed at all since she had last seen the woman, and neither had her outfit.

She informed them, in a rather crude manner that they were to go and meet them in a location where their jonin sensei would inform them of. Knowing Anko as well as she did, Naruto was willing to bet her apartment and all the research inside it that they were going to the forest of death. It would explain why she thought over half would fail. No doubt there would be _a lot_ of death in the forest named after it.

 

 


	5. Chapter 5

Naruto decided to take a leaf out of Anko’s book and didn’t inform her teammates or classmates where the exam was going to take place. Or that they would most likely have to stay in the forest for several days either. She did however take plenty enough provisions in scrolls with her for Team 7. She wasn’t that evil.

**_I would have to disagree. I would never leave my siblings to fend for themselves as you did with Indara’s reincarnation._ **

_Kurama. You realise that is basically all you did after the old man six paths passed away right?_

**_What of it?_ **

Instead of replying she ignored him and made her way to training ground 44, also known as the forest of death. Naruto had mixed feelings about this training ground. It was practical for survival exercises, hence why Kakashi sensei had made them find him in the forest yet at the same time, held so many dangerous and poisonous things such as plants and animals no one of a genin status would suspect.

Minus her team since they had previously been in there anyway.

Once she arrived, she joined her team and not long after the meeting point was full of different teams and she spied the nine konoha rookies as well as team Gai. She also noticed the sand siblings were also there so she informed Sasuke she would be talking to them, not that he paid much attention. He was too busy glaring at Neji and Rock Lee.

This time instead of jumping onto Temari’s back, she decided to jump onto Gaara’s. The reaction was just as she thought, sand from his gourd poured out and attempted to suffocate her, and it would have succeeded had it not been for her careful planning earlier to apply Kurama’s shield around her neck.

**_Your plan?_ **

_Okay, fine. Your plan. So what, who cares?_

**_I do. Now go back to reality._ **

“Gaara! Let go of her!” Temari hissed at her brother, wide eyed, clearly not wanting to get in trouble with Konoha for killing their yondaime’s only daughter.

Deciding to mess with their heads a bit more, she channelled more chakra into her neck, causing Gaara’s sand to disperse. She clicked her neck as she bent it left and then right, not once removing her eyes from Gaara’s slightly widened ones. “That’s one heck of an ultimate defence you’ve got there Gaara. Oh and don’t worry Temari- senpai. We’re all shinobi here, Gaara’s reaction was simply a defence. Anyway!” she clapped her hands together as a large smile made its way onto her face. “First’s things first, Gaara. Have you reconsidered my offer from yesterday?”

His wide eyes returned to a glare as he looked at her yet they weren’t as fiery as they were the previous day, “No.”

She decided not let his answer upset her and nodded, but she did pout. She looked over to Temari and said, “I hope you’ve got enough supplies to last you a few days. Since Anko is our proctor, she’s going to make us stay here in the forest of death for a few days at least. This place is literally her baby.”

“Forest of death? I thought this was training ground 44?” asked Konkuro as he looked at her in the eye. Temari, Gaara or their jonin sensei must have had a word with him that it was rude to stare at a girl’s chest. Although in all fairness, Naruto wasn’t doing very much to hide them since they were loosely wrapped in bandages and the zipper to her hoodie open from just under her breasts.

“This is training ground 44. But to everyone here in Konoha it’s known as the forest of death since it has venomous snakes, spiders, poisonous plants and lots of other dangerous crap. Perfect for survival training, right?” she gave a smile and tilted her head to the side, causing a shiver to run up Konkuros back.

**_That’s the sort of smile a yandere gives, just without the hands on the face._ **

_No one asked your opinion on my choice of smile, Kurama._

**Yo yo! Kurama! Long-time no see big bro!** There was a third voice in her head, and it seemed to be a tanuki?

**_Shukaku! Leave here at once! You’ll cause my jinchuriki unnecessary pain which I will have to heal!_ **

**Like I care bro! I wanna know how I can be here!**

**_I refuse to answer. NOW LEAVE!_** Kurama roared and forced Shukaku to leave.

Kurama wasn’t exaggerating when he said Naruto would be in a lot of pain. She walked back a few steps as she clutched her head with both hands, balling them up into her hair.

Very few black dots clouded her vision, so closed her eyes, willing the pain to go away and after ten or so seconds it did. Uzumaki blood, plus having the nine tails makes you the fastest person to heal on the planet.

She opened her eyes to see all three sand siblings wide eyed, Gaara’s hands raised in defence.

Her eyes were still squinted as she let one hand fall to her side, the remaining one clutching her head and massaging it at the same time. “I see why you don’t get much sleep Gaara. Shukaku is a pain in the ass.”

IF at all possible, all three of their eyes widened as they all took a step back, causing Naruto to mentally pat herself on the back for being able to do so without even trying.

“H-how do you?” Temari asked, pointing to Gaara and the younger blonde as her head looked between the two of them.

“I’m an Uzumaki. We have great sensory abilities. Gaara has two chakra signatures, his own and Shukaku’s. Here’s how I knew it was Shukaku; the two tails is in kumo, three tails is the mizukage, four tails is in Iwa, the five tails is also in Iwa, six tails is in Kiri, seven tails is in Taki, eight tails is in Kumo, and the nine tails is in Konoha. Also the one tails is in Suna and always has been due to his sand affinity. Did I miss anything?” she looked at the three sand siblings, her yandere smile back on her face as she placed her head in her hand, which ultimately led to her chest to bounce which drew the attention of both boys.

At this, both Temari and Naruto raised a brow, shocked Gaara would even look. Naruto’s seduction classes were paying off. She beamed, causing Temari to blush.

It was then that Naruto felt Anko’s chakra and mentioned it to the three of them, going over to her teammates as they gathered together.

At some point a kunai cut her cheek and Anko decided to be creepy and licked it off, her reason for doing both was because she wasn’t paying attention to the tokubetsu jonin.

Kurama, however, started to growl and lash around her mind scape when another sound ninja came and handed Anko her kunai via her tongue.

She was unable to make out what he was saying through the growl and gnarls but managed to make out: snake, paedophile, sharingan, Orochimaru, experiments, snakes again, sennin, and other similar words.

Naruto froze at the implications and as they made their way into the tents, she made a clone to warn Anko and the other proctors of what was going on, as well as the teams she knew.

They made it to the gate when Naruto told her teammates about Orochimaru being here at the exam, and at first the two of them were very sceptical but after some convincing they believed her and the three of them cautiously and quickly made their way through the forest.

As she thought of the forest she realised one very important detail about the tower; it hadn’t fallen during the nine tails attack during her birth, meaning the hiraishin seal inside the tower should still be there.

She informed her team she would try to get access to the seal that was there, she had after all been there so it should make things a little easier. After a few minutes she found herself in the jonin room where everyone was watching the exam. All eyes went onto her, causing her to turn red, hastily apologise and return to her team.

When she returned the team was happy that they could quickly make their way to the tower and took a short lunch break, Naruto insisting on having a barrier seal placed she had only recently learnt as she sent out over a dozen clones to scout out the other teams and get a scroll if necessary.

Their lunch break lasted just under a half hour in which time nearly half of Naruto’s clones had been dispersed and the other half still doing as she requested.

They carried on through the forest when Naruto was suddenly face to face with a tree size snake. Doing what any other debatably sane kunoichi would do, she through a kunai with six explosive tags into its mouth as it tried to eat her, causing it to explode moments later, filling her and her teammates with snake essence.

    

 


	6. Chapter 6

Naruto planned on slowly and painfully obliterate the person who sic the snake on them. It was obvious who it was and she knew as she was now she would not be able to get the best over Orochimaru one of the legendary sennin but that didn’t mean she couldn’t use Kurama’s power to temporarily subdue him, just long enough to sound off a flash rocket to let them know where Orochimaru was.

Of course, they would have to find the hebi first, and considering the forest of death was full of snakes, it wasn’t going to be easy to tell the difference between naturally evil and possessed evil.

Sakura seemed to be the most annoyed about their current predicament, her new shinobi outfit had been ruined by the goo on her and she now had goo on her skin, since her belly button area was uncovered. **(A/N think of Sakura’s new outfit in Boruto, no I have not watched it but I did watch the movie)**

She muttering curses under her breath, swearing vengeance. It was enough to cause both Sasuke and Naruto to stand a good distance ahead of her since if they were behind her, they would be accused of going too slow.

They carried on making their way through the forest yet it wasn’t long after that they were intercepted by Kiba and his team.

Or at least people pretending to be Kiba and his team. They smelt absolutely off and like snakes.

“Hey guys… We just saw this god awful red head kill a bunch of people with sand. Sand!”

Naruto had to give it to them, they had Kiba’s personality almost on point, yet it wasn’t perfect, “Do you guys wanna tell these Oto idiots why their henge it awful or should I?”

Sasuke and Sakura leaned against a tree on either side of the blonde, smirking as they gestured for her to do the honours, “Well first of all, Kiba hardly ever has his hood down, almost always has his dog Akamaru either in his hoodie or his head yet you don’t have Akamaru. He’s an Inuzuka, he would rather die than be away from his ninken.

“Hinata doesn’t act shy with people she knows, she acts very, very forward. Too forward in fact. Shino… you got him right at least. Another thing you forgot to do was change you scents. You smell of snakes. That should be it. I’ll let my team do what they want with you now.”

Doing what they wanted required her to use her KI to freeze them as Sakura broke all the bones from their fingertips to their shoulders. Once she had done that Sasuke proceeded to use his ninja wire and tied them up high on some trees at a good distance from each other.   

Kurama was praising their creativity.  

She would have thought it was overdone if her favourite shirt hadn’t currently been covered in snake essence and if she didn’t stink. Also the humiliation she was feeling due to Kurama’s comments right now were most definitely not helping her mood.

They made their way through the forest on edge, waiting for the inevitable attack that would occur however as they passed the river a clone hiraishined in front of them with the second scroll. That left them with a heaven scroll and an earth scroll.

The team stopped and waited for Naruto as she dispersed all of her clones. When they had stopped at the river earlier she had made extra clones to create traps and such in order to lessen the amount of competitors in the next round. She had to be careful not to allow those clones to disperse yet.

Once she was sure she dispersed all of the ones she needed to do, they all hiraishined to the tower where all the jonin were.

Her face became red as she saw all the jonin instructors looking at them, before she grabbed a hold of her teammates, mumbled an apology and dragged them out of the room. They bumped into Kakashi sensei on the way and he had said they needed to enter a room before he poofed away.

They made their way into the room and saw a riddle in front of them. Deciding to simply let Sakura figure out what the answer was she started to strip herself of her hoodie when she heard a familiar voice.

Turning around she saw Iruka sensei talking to them and decided to blank out what he was saying. Sasuke seemed to be doing a similar thing but was at least partially paying attention.

She did however notice he said they could go to their room. Singular. They would be sharing a room together.

They shrugged their shoulders as they made their way upstairs. Sakura going to the kunoichi showers downstairs where Sasuke went to the shinobi ones. Naruto went to the en-suite bathroom in their room. She changed into a set of clothing she had sealed and earlier gave Sasuke and Sakura scrolls that had their belongings in as well.

Her new outfit was different to her usual. A black spaghetti strap bodice top with an orange zip up shawl like top which uncovered her left shoulder and breast and went to her upper thigh. She also wore thigh high shinobi heels with her holster in place. On the back was of course the Uzumaki swirl and her right hand and arm were covered with standard gloves that had a fishnet going up to her upper arms.

Just as she finished getting dressed Sakura returned and gave a wolf whistle at her appearance, “Well, if Konoha doesn’t get many treaties from the other nations by simply looking at you I don’t know what will.” She laughed at the girls comment and noticed her hair.

**_Before you bore me with your nonsense girl talk I will be going to sleep. Don’t wake me up unless you’re dying._ **

“Sakura… why do you keep your hair long? You’re a hand-to-hand combatant. Wouldn’t it be easier to have it either cut or tied?” she asked as she braided her hair with the help of a clone. 

“Sasuke prefers girls with long hair. That and I can do a lot of things with my hair with it long.” She shrugged her shoulders as she watching Naruto do her own hair with a clone.

Naruto jutted out her lips, it made sense. Sakura did put her hair in different styles each time she saw her and each one looked good and convenient.

“I also noticed your infatuation with the teme seems to have lessened since we came back from Wave country… how comes?” she asked as her clone finished her hair and dispersed itself.

“Well I noticed a lot more things about him and realised we have nothing in common besides our careers. That I realise that Sasuke would have to take part in the CRA and I’m not sure how I would feel knowing the man I was in love with had kids with other women. And it would be selfish for me to say he can’t take part in it.” Naruto was so happy that Sakura had matured she had to hold back her tears. 

“Well, you made a good choice. You wouldn’t want to be stuck with a guy with Sasukes deadbeat personality. That and he says ‘hn’ way too much. He’s also anti-social-”

“You have no room to talk! I happened to see the red head you’ve been stalking recently and he no personality so to speak! Unless you call being a psychopath having a personality!” she yelled with a large smile on her face.

Said smile grew larger when Naruto took the bait, “Gaara’s here? Since when?”

“Since 97 minutes after the exam started.” Replied Sakura as she checked her nails, teasing the blonde.

Just as Naruto was about to speak up her stomach growled and not a moment later a half wet shirtless Sasuke Uchiha entered the room.

Naruto barely gave him a glance as she declared them to be going for dinner. Shrugging, Sasuke put on a shirt and team 7 made their way downstairs together.

Sasuke looked for onigiri and tomatoes, Naruto looked for ramen and Sakura who had long since abandoned her diet looked for chicken. As they were serving themselves Naruto felt a poke at her mind and her back heated.

She could sense several people in the room but she couldn’t sense who was looking at her, “Sasuke. I want you to discreetly look around the room and tell me who’s looking at me. I feel a glare burning into my very soul.” Overly exaggerated yet she didn’t care.

He looked around but it was Sakura who answered, “The kazekage’s son. He looks pissed off. What did you do to offend him so badly?”

Naruto looked baffled, hands splayed out in front of her as she replied, “All I did was ask him out. So I fail to see what I did wrong.”

“What did he say?” asked Sasuke, clearly wanting to be let in on this part of the gossip. Something Sakura and Naruto learnt when they became a team was Sasuke liked to know gossip, but didn’t like to spread it outside the two girls. Apparently it was something Itachi encouraged so he would know anything and everything about people. He had also been told that not everything he heard would be true and too simply listen but not act.

“One word; no.”

Both her teammates raised their brows and pointed to her chest, “Did he even look at your chest?” asked Sakura, confused as to how Naruto was rejected.

“He did! Still didn’t change his mind.”

“Well.” Said Sasuke with a glint in his eyes, causing the two girls to curse. Whenever Sasuke got that look it was never a good sign. “Why don’t we get him to notice you then? Follow me!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The outfit is not my creation and it belongs to:  
> zombie-adoptables.deviantart.com 
> 
> https://www.pinterest.de/pin/284500901438256665/
> 
> I saw this on pinterest and thought why not?


	7. Chapter 7

Naruto and Sakura confusedly followed Sasuke as he led the two of them to the table the sand siblings were sitting at. “Sakura, when you feel like the two of us are going over board, hit us or yell.”

Naruto and Sakura looked confusedly at each other as they took seats across the three siblings.

“Temari, Konkuro and Gaara no Subaku…” started Sasuke as he took his brooding pose, “How did you find the second round?” he asked, causing Naruto and Sakura to look very concerningly his way. He was never one to strike a conversation… did he fancy one of them?

“Naruto Uzumaki. Leave.” This caused all eyes to go to Gaara then Naruto. Her teammates eyes were laughing at her but the sand siblings were concerned and worried.

“The test was actually quite easy. We managed to finish it quite quick. By the way, I do love your new outfit.” Replied Konkuro as he leered to her chest. She didn’t have anything binding her chest so the bodice was the only thing covering it, giving him a good view.

Not that Naruto really cared who looked, they wouldn’t get to touch was all that mattered to her. Maybe when she was older she would care, but at the current time, she didn’t.

None of the three siblings replied, Gaara glaring at Naruto who focused her attention of Temari when she realised what the teme was doing. “Temari… you’re a wind user right?”

The older blonde looked at her, confused by her question but carried on the conversation nonetheless, “Yes. Why did you want to know? In fact, I’d love to know how you figured it out.”

“I have a wind affinity and was wondering if you had any tips? I can do all D rank and some C rank wind release jutsu’s but was wondering how to move an incoming object without being near it. As for how I figured it out; you’re from the land of wind and carry a large tessen. Unless you get hot really easy and need to cover large surface area to cool down, I fail to see why you should carry one.” Temari, Konkuro and Sasuke chuckled lightly at her joke.

“There is a technique taught in Sunagakure to high tier wind users. You simply use a bit of your chakra to either create or control the air around you and make it speed up. Of course, you could always do the daitoppa or yadama henshin bakuh. The former being used for large things such as people or boulders whereas the latter is used for things such as shuriken and kunai.”

“Now I’ve heard of the second one, that’s a C rank but the first one I can actually do. I just find it annoying how you have to build it up before you release the wind.”

Temari nodded her head earnestly, clearly having faced the same problem before, “I would teach you the technique I use to deflect weapons without having to do that but it’s a Suna secret…”

Naruto waved a hand as she peeked at the others; Sasuke and Sakura were talking to Konkuro as Gaara glared at her. “It’s fine. I get it. It’s like if I wanted to teach you a clan technique, I would have to go through a lot of paperwork first. Sasuke and I are the only ones of our year to actually have a specialization in an element. Everyone else has something else they specialize in. like Sakura, she specialized in genjutsu and inryo ninjutsu.”

Temari looked to her teammates, clearly impressed that fresh out of the academy genin had already started to specialize. “Can you take a guess at what my siblings and I specialize in? Then I’ll try to guess what the people I’ve seen specialize in.”  

Nodding her head slowly she looked to each sibling as she answered, “Well since you’re the eldest you have to specialize in diplomacy and stuff like that as well as wind. Konkuro has to specialize in puppets since he’s carrying one around with him everywhere, and as for his element I’d have to say wind but I think he’d be good with the other elements as well, minus fire. That doesn’t go with puppets. Gaara on the other hand… well he carries a gourd of sand so I’d say sand manipulation. As for elements… wind, earth and lightning seem to fit his personality-”

She was interrupted by Sakura scoffing, “What personality? I said it before I’ll say it again. The only way this boy could have a personality is if being a psychopath was one.”

Before Naruto or Sasuke could reprimand the girl, the latter was called in by a jonin to talk to Kakashi so Naruto decided to carry on, “That’s honestly all I can think of. Well no, I guess assassination would work well with Gaara since he did easily kill Team Shigure in the forest of death.”

“About that, you made the forest seem really dangerous, it wasn’t all that bad.” Said Konkuro as he looked her in the eye, clearly trying to avoid the topic of his brother.

“Oh I guarantee that at least one third of the teams that participated either die or get severely injured.” She let out a giggle causing Sakura to lightly hit her over the head.

“You’re going a bit psycho there Naruto.”

She smiled sheepishly just as a sand tail hit the table causing the food on their trays to shake. Good. If they had fallen Naruto would have gone crazy for the loss of ramen.

“Naruto Uzumaki. I suggest you leave the table at once. Your presence irks me.” If Naruto though he looked irritated before, Gaara looked down right mutinous right now.

Naruto being the weird person she was wasn’t frightened by it at all, instead she loved it. Sakura on the other hand seemed to be barely holding it in.

“Why would my presence irk you if I’m talking to your sister? Would you prefer I talk to you instead, because I will have to finish my conversation with your sister first.”

“By all means, please carry on talking to my brother.” Said Temari the same time Sakura said, “Naruto where do you come up with these conclusions?”

“Leave before I feed your blood to mother.”

Naruto groaned as she looked to the red head, “I told you once and I’ll tell you again. I’m not afraid of your mother. You can both come at me with all you’ve got, you won’t get very far.”

Because she was side-tracked looking Gaara in his hypnotic teal coloured eyes he had she didn’t notice the two whips of sand that took a hold of her, causing her to involuntarily flinch. One wrapped around her waist whilst the over went around her neck, the latter not being too tight, leaving enough space for her to breathe.

She could vaguely sense the jonin and ANBU in the room move to them yet she raised her hand and used Konoha’s signs for them to go back to their posts.

“Why do you not fear me? I have never met a person who didn’t cower in my presence. Even my father once did so, so why don’t you?” the sand wrapped around her suddenly tightened causing Kurama to wake up.

 ** _What did you do to upset Shukaku’s jinchuriki so much foolish ningen?_** He asked sleepily.

_Why must I always be at fault? Can’t people just get annoyed and I just happen to be there?_

**_No._ **

_Well I didn’t do anything._ She stuck her mental tongue at him like the childish girl she was.

She let out a large bout of chakra dispersing the sand from around her as she sucked in two large breaths. She looked to Gaara and saw his fury, saw the large range of his emotions swirling in those hypnotic teal eyes and in that moment Naruto saw the real him. Up until now all she had seen was a façade, yet here and now was real.

She knew she should be afraid, like Sakura or Konkuro yet she wasn’t. Hell even Temari seemed to be scared and she had been the one to keep her cool till now.

Once again it simply excited her. At this point, she was thriving off it. Sakura would most definitely demand she have her head scanned to see if she had been dropped as a child or if all her screws were where they should be, since this was clearly not how someone reacted to being threatened.

Then again she recalled Jiraiya of the sannin being highly infatuated with Lady Tsunade despite her constantly beating the crap out of him. Probably not the best type of relationship someone could get into but she was sure this was simply a phase. **(A/N I do not condone violent relationships but anime likes tsundere and I’d like to think of Gaara as a half tsundere half yandere)**

Sakura was then called in like Sasuke, yet she paused, only leaving when Naruto gave her the okay. Once she was out of hearing range she spoke, “Did you honestly believe your demon frightens me Gaara? There are worse demons out there and I’ve met them. The only difference between us is I know how to control them.”

Neither Gaara nor Konkuro seemed to understand her implication but Temari did. She gave a look that told Temari not to tell her bothers, to let them figure it out themselves before she was also called out to take part in whatever her teammates had been individually called in for. 

 

 

 


	8. Chapter 8

It turned out that team 7 had been called in because Orochimaru had seen sighted but somehow escaped. They thanked Naruto for informing them and allowed the three of them to go after writing a summary of what had happened before, during and after the exam. Naruto of course omitted the details regarding the sand siblings.

Knowing the old man he would go through his version of sex ed all over again, which was something someone who specialized in seduction really didn’t need to be told twice about.

Begrudgingly the three of them went back to their rooms, a rule that had been placed on them. They had been given a curfew that couldn’t be broken, the exception being Naruto but without her teammates there was little she could actually do.

The three of them joined the beds together to make more room for them to sleep easily. Naruto in the middle, Sakura by the door and Sasuke by the window. They had spent a good chunk of the night discussing who they believed would make it to the tower.

So far the only ones they could be sure of was the Konoha teams. The other teams all seemed strong but outward appearances could be deceiving, it was practically a rule for shinobi and kunoichi.

“Kabuto and his team could make it.” Said Sasuke as they moved onto the older generations. “He has taken the exam lots of times and has a lot of information on everyone.”

“Hmm. Not likely. He’s working for Orochimaru.” Both of her teammates looked to her to continue, “When we met him the other day he had a distinct smell of snake, then when we met Orochimaru in that girl’s body, it was the same smell. He’s probably at T&I right now.”

“T&I?” asked Sakura, causing Sasuke and herself to look at her before they realised Sakura had no business knowing about them before as she wasn’t a member of a clan.

“Torture and interrogation. A unit in the information corps that does as the name suggests. I say its’ part of the unit but Ibiki is actually in charge, even though Inoichi has been running the corps longer than Ibiki ran T&I.”

The three teens were interrupted by a knocking at the door, stating they should go to sleep if they wanted to be rested for the training their sensei was going to put them through the next day.

So the next morning the three of them got up, Naruto first who then woke up Sakura who was less of a morning person than Naruto, but more so than Sasuke. Getting the teme up was the hardest part as he kept trying to light them on fire.

At some point he gave up so he and Sakura made their way back downstairs to take a shower. Why the three of them couldn’t take turns using the en-suite was beyond her.

Naruto was training in seduction and should not have had the reaction she did when the sand boys entered her room as she was getting dressed. She only had on her short shorts and her bodice which was half way down her chest when they came in.

Her face became red as she hurriedly put it further down, pointing a finger to the two of them once she did so, “Didn’t anyone teach either of you to knock before you enter?! I could have been completely naked for all you knew!” not that the thought did much to deter them.

Konkuro and Gaara both seemed to be unfazed by the sight of a half-naked Naruto so she threw a pillow at them, hitting Konkuro but didn’t manage to get the other to hit Gaara.

Ultimate defence and all.

Not a moment later Temari came behind them, “I am so sorry Lady Uzumaki!” she smacked both boys over the head, “Apologise!”

Konkuro bowed his head as he apologised to her however Gaara seemed adamant on not apologising yet Temari was having none of it, “You can’t just barge in a ladies room whilst she’s half naked and not apologise to her! Especially when said lady is the daughter of the yondaime hokage!” she placed her hands on hips as she yelled at her brother, clearly having no fear whilst doing so. That or she felt the need to take on a motherly role for the boy who had never met their mother.

Gaara eventually replied in a monotone voice, “I apologise for walking in on you whilst you were getting dressed.”

Blushing further Naruto refused to allow it to get to her, “Well you came here for a reason, what is it?”

“Our sensei, Baki, insisted we insist on all agreeing to your proposal of showing us the forest you wanted to take Gaara to-” started Temari.

“I was going to insist on leaving my siblings behind and simply let the two of us go-” Continued Konkuro yet was interrupted by the youngest sibling.

“I followed after to stop both of them for even suggesting the idea.” His monotone voice matched the blank look in his eyes.

**_Focus on the conversation and not the eyes that seem to fascinate you so much._ **

_Shut up!_

Shukaku decided to enter her mind again as a sudden boisterous voice yelled, Kurama! Seriously bro! I wanna know how this works!

Naruto gasped as she fell he knees, hands clutching her head as she clenched her eyes shut.

**_Shukaku! How many times do I have to tell you?! Leave!_ **

Tell me first!

**_I am older and you will respect me!_ **

Don’t try that! You’ve been pulling that card since the old man died! 

Both bijuu clearly forgot the pain they were putting Naruto through as she rolled onto her back, writhing on the ground as black dots surrounded her vision.

 ** _At least I’m not driving a ningen to insanity!_** Kurama seemed to finally realise what was going on with Naruto as he answered his brother’s question. **_She is Ashura’s reincarnation and since she and I have fully merged together, as well as her having a fragment of Hogoromo’s power all the tailed beasts can enter her mind. However since she is still young it can cause her lots of pain so I suggest you leave!_**

So you’re sayin’ she has the old man’s son’s soul inside her? 

Shukaku was suddenly ripped out of her mind as a hand was placed on her forehead. The hand didn’t move, even after she opened her squinted eyes.

It belonged to Gaara, and was very warm. He seemed to run on the same body heat as Naruto did, so she assumed it was a jinchuriki thing.

She stopped gasping but did swallow large bouts of breaths, following the breathing pattern Temari instructed she follow. Konkuro was getting her a glass a water, from where she wasn’t sure and didn’t quite care however when she tried to reach for it her hands shook.

It was this very sight that her teammates walked in on. A half-naked honourable daughter in pain as she was surrounded by ninja from a foreign nation, the kazekages children to boot. To make matters worse, the crazy one who enjoyed killing people was touching her.

Not suspicious whatsoever.

Sasuke activated his sharingan as he went to attack. Not a wise idea, attacking the children on the kazekage but it wasn’t something they couldn’t doge.

He threw a few shuriken and kunai at Temari who used a gust of wind to deflect it and instead came hers’ and Gaara’s way. She was too weak at the current time to deflect them however it wasn’t necessary, Gaara did so with his sand. 

It was then Naruto noticed something odd about Sasuke’s chakra and his form, there were black ink marks running up his neck and left arm.

Having finally caught her breath she spoke up, after noticing a couple of Konoha jonin and ANBU coming inside, “I’m fine.” She sat up slowly, wincing at the sudden pressure in her head, “There was a lot of talking going on in my head is all.”

All eyes went from her to Gaara. It was common knowledge for the guards that Gaara was a jinchuriki and they also knew the nine tails couldn’t cause harm upon her, meaning the one tails had to have done something.

Hayate, Genma and Kakashi sensei all took a hold of Sasuke as they forved him to the opposite side of the room. She would have to talk to them all later about the marks on Sasuke.

“Gaara no Subaku. We kindly ask you to remove your hand from Lady Uzumaki.” Said Raido as he came forward, eyes watching Gaara’s hand which had yet to leave her as it now rested on the side of her neck.

Gaara glared at them and didn’t remove his hand till another 7 seconds, Naruto had been mentally counting.

“Thankyou. Now, may I ask what went on here? I don’t wish to accuse anyone but the sight we were all greeted with upon arrival wasn’t the best to prove innocence.”

Gaara stood up and his siblings stood on either side of him as Sakura and Asuma stood beside her. The room was getting far too crowded and if anyone else came in, she would yell at them.

“We apologise for that. My siblings and I came to tell lady Uzumaki that we wanted to take her up on her offer to escort us in the forest behind your hot spring when we interrupted her getting dressed. After apologising and informing her of our unexpected arrival she fell down clutching her head in pain. She went on the ground completely a moment later when my brother realised what the problem was and thought to help alleviate her pain. That was when the rest of her team arrived.” Replied Temari. Her reply was very diplomatic, which was nothing less than what Naruto expected from the daughter of the kazekage.

 

 

 

 

 


	9. Chapter 9

Naruto was bored out of her mind as she sat in front of the hokage with Gaara, Temari and Sakura. Sasuke was downstairs getting the cursed hickey he had gotten from Orochimaru under control. She planned on checking it out and seeing if she could defuse the seal.

If she could examine the seal long enough and understands what makes it tick she can either remove it completely or at least place it in Sasukes full control.

She also had to make a seal to get Shukaku to shut up. As things are currently, she made a separate mind-scape for the two bijuu to do as they pleased however it left her with a headache as they did so.

Whatever Gaara had done earlier is what really caught her attention. It was as if he had sucked Shukaku from her and back into himself. If she could understand that, she might be able to get better control of having the bijuu talk to her.

“So… all in all… everything pans down to Naruto wanting to take you all to the hot springs forest, and that was when things went south due to Shukaku but Gaara over here fixed that all up, correct?” the way he said it made Naruto think whether or not the old man had either smoked too much or perhaps had too much sake.

**I am more inclined to believe he had something bad to smoke. Or perhaps everything just became an overload for him.**

_What up Kurama? How’s it goin’?_

**I am fine despite being locked inside you for the next few days… is there no way for you to release me for the day?**

_I can try… once this meetings over I’ll ask if I can be excused for a short while and release you. I’ll come back at dinner time to collect you or do you think you can make it back to the tower by yourself?_

**I am more than capable of making it back and if I don’t you can always force me back.**

_There is always that option. So, when do you think we’ll get a chance to do some fighting?_

She tuned back into reality, deciding having done what she needed to do, and only paid attention when the sandaime said it was okay for them to leave. He also stated it was okay for everyone to leave the tower if they so pleased just as long as they were back by the evening of the fourth day. If they weren’t back in time for the matchups to be decided then they would be disqualified.

She walked besides Temari as they made their way through the corridor back to their rooms, Gaara standing on Temari’s other side. “So, did you guys have a specific time you wanted to go to the forest? We can go any one of these days or we could go once this round has finished.”

Temari grinned as she repied, “Well, I think it’d be better to go after this round. If that’s alright with you?”

“That’s great dattebayo! Also I was wondering… Gaara!” the red head only gave her a glance in the corner of her eye but that was all she needed to know he was listening at the very least. She moved to stand in the middle where Temari previously was, her arms behind her back as she spoke, “First I wanted to say thank-you for whatever you did to get Shukaku out of my head. Bastard is currently killing my head but I’ve managed to shove him in this corner. The second thing I wanted to say was if I could have a look at your jinchuriki seal and see if there’s anything I can do to give you better control. If not then could I have like a picture of it so I can work on it?”

Gaara’s and Temari’s footsteps faltered slightly, clearly not thinking that would be the next conversation the blonde bought up, “… how do you know of those seals?”

She gave him a flat look, clearly not understanding why he would ask her such a question but answered nonetheless, “My father was the yondaime hokage who was known for his hiraishin. Fair enough, it belonged to the nidaime but he was known for using it a lot more. My mother was an Uzumaki who taught him about seals. Knowing that, it made me very curious about seals and Uzushiogakure was the nation that sealed the tailed beasts away in the first place.”

“Gaara?” asked Temari tentatively. “How about you let her have a look at it and then we can take a picture and let her study it further? It would be highly beneficial if you could control him. At the very least, you should be able to sleep a lot better.” Said Temari before she furrowed her brows and looked to the blonde, “You didn’t by any chance do something to help Gaara sleep have you?”

Naruto gave a nervous laugh and scratched the back of her head, “Yeah… I placed this small seal on him by a bird. I placed a seal that would move onto the largest chakra source when it landed. Gaara, thankfully was who it landed on. It’s mostly a suppressant so you can’t hear his gender bent murmuring.”

Gaara blinked and Naruto saw he was debating on whether or not he should thank her or kill her yet he was saved from having to decide on which one to do, “On behalf of my socially constipated brother. Thank-you for helping him, I know he won’t do it himself. Is there anything we can do to repay you for your kindness?”

“Speak to your brother about my perks and what the benefits would be from dating me?” her eyes twinkled as she gave the taller blonde a wink.

Temari ginned as she threw her arm around the Uzumaki, “You and I are going to be great friends. I will most definitely do that. Do I get to mention this?” she gently poked at her stomach, making sure Gaara didn’t notice.

She gave it a thought before shaking her head, whispering to her, “No. I’d prefer he either figure it out himself or I tell him. No one in Konoha speaks of it whilst foreigners are here for fear of something I don’t care much to remember.”

She peeked behind to have a look at Gaara who was walking a good distance from them. “How do you have control over the nine tails?”

She looked back at Temari as she replied, “Well… that’s a long story but to shorten it lets say I merged my chakra with the nine tails’ chakra and that’s how we got where we are today.”

“Hmmm… you know… despite that seal you placed on him he isn’t too keen on sleeping. He enjoys sitting on rooftops in the evening if you catch my drift.” She gave Naruto a wink as an extra clue causing a large grin to find its way on her face.

Naruto nodded, contemplating the different things she could have meant. “You never did get round to guessing what I specialised in, by the way.”

Temari jerked, as if just realising it as she scrutinised the young blonde, “Well… you’re the ward of the sandaime hokage and daughter of the yondaime hokage… so I’d have to say diplomacy.” She said it with such finality and certainty that Naruto was unable to hold back her laugh.

Whilst she was being trained on diplomacy and other lessons a kage specializes in, that was not what she specialized in. it took her a minute to calm down and when she did, Gaara was leaning against the wall as he stared off into mid-air.

“Actually, I specialize in seduction. Though I am being trained in-”

“Wait what?!” yelled a wide eyed Temari. That seemed to be the most emotion she had ever seen from such a stoic person. Then again she was used to ruffling peoples feathers it shouldn’t be surprising anymore.

She could feel Gaara’s gaze on her yet she chose not to look at him yet as she spoke to Temari, “Well… it made sense to me. Not many women choose that field of work yet it’s something that can come in handy with my diplomacy. My team as a unit are a frontline attack team so I won’t be used for infiltration unless it’s highly necessary. I have great sensory abilities to do that however there’s another girl in class who would do better for that.”

She thought of Hinata or Ino. Both had great figures and personalities that were good for infiltration. Ino was best as she would work in the information’s unit, using her womanly wiles could get people to respond better.

She finally looked at Gaara and somehow he managed something she never thought was humaly possible. His eyes looked cold yet they were burning with… something. It made his teal eyes hard yet they also sparkled. With eyes like those, that look should be illegal as if caused her heart to skip a beat.

Temari was pacing two steps as she looked and pointed between Naruto and the end of the corridor where they had met the sandaime, stuttering out, “B-but you- his- they- hokage- seduction- diplomacy-”

Gaara seemed to disapprove as he glared at his sister, “That is enough Temari. You are making a scene worse that when Konkuro started to flirt with her.”

 

 

 

 


	10. Chapter 10

“You make it seem like I don’t get flirted at almost every day anyway.” She shrugged her shoulders as they finally reached the end of the corridor. “When would you like me to look at it Gaara?” she asked when they were in Konkuro’s hearing.

Gaara glared at her as he thought of a time, “Tonight…”

Konkuro and Baki coughed their drinks, clearly finding the conversation… unusual. “Konkuro, Baki senesi. You will never guess what Naruto here specializes in.” spoke Temari as she grinned at them, arm around Naruto’s shoulder.

Baki studied Naruto before he replied, “As the honourable daughter of the yondaime I would have to say diplomacy.”

He gave a bow to Naruto, acknowledging Naruto as practical royalty and in return she bowed her head. “That’s what we all thought! But no! She specializes in seduction. Seduction!” Temari’s voice showed her confusion and other emotions Naruto hadn’t experienced in order to explain but it was between annoyance, shock and confusion.

Konkuro let out a strangled spluttering noise as his face turned a nice shade of pink. Baki on the other hand seemed to not allow this information to shock him however his eyes widened but then a small frown marred his face as he glanced at where Gaara was standing.

“How very… odd. I did not take Lord Sarutobi one to allow his ward into such a… dangerous line of work.” Spoke Baki, the dutiful politician he was. He refrained from insulting both her and the hokage despite the fact he was thinking it, yet he managed to get his thoughts across.

She gave him a smile, “Well in all honesty it was my choice. Due to who my parents are, I have several areas I need to perfect. Fuinjutsu as both my parents specialised in it, diplomacy since my father was a hokage, chakra control and sage arts due to both of them. But due to my Uzumaki blood, my chakra is a lot more dense and corrosive, so I have to specialise in chakra control mostly because of that. Also due to my reserves, my team and I have been made the front-liners of my graduating class. Infiltration was something that I want to add since I want to work in seduction and it’d help in that area.” Her smile never left her face as she explained about the several different areas she had to learn in order to take the hokage seat.

Of course she never stated she would take it, merely hinted at it. By right of birth, like suna do, she was next in line for the title of kage but the same could be said about Asuma Sarutobi. However if we went by experience Kakashi sensei would be on that list as well if he didn’t prefer being 3 hours late and read hentai all day. To add to that list Lady Tsunade could also take the title if she ever wanted it, or to ever return to Konoha.

“Th-that is quite the achievement, Lady Namikaze.”

She waved a hand, “Please. No need for that. Especially with that name. if you won’t call me by my first name then I request I be addressed by my Uzumaki name since I’m less likely to get killed because of it. Iwa, Kumo and Kiri ninja are here after all.” She gave him a pointed look and he gave a curt nod and he gave one in return with a bow before looking pointedly at Gaara and left.

She clapped her hands causing a loud echo in the empty room, “Well then! When did you all want to go to the forest? It will be a lot less dangerous than this one, I promise.”

Konkuro and Temari looked at each other before looking back at Gaara. Temari being the brave and devoted sister she was went over to Gaara and whispered something that was clearly meant to be private so Naruto tried not to listen. Whatever she said made him clench his jaw as he looked Naruto in the eye and once again a shiver of thrill went through her back causing her to grin.

“We- we will go with you a day after this round has finished.” He replied before marching out of the room, slamming the door behind him as he did so, causing Konkuro to jump slightly.

He didn’t seem to be a coward, however whenever it came to his little brother he seemed on edge. It made her think about Gaara’s life growing up and what it was about his childhood that caused such a reaction from all those around him.

His siblings left after him leaving her on her own before she remembered Sakura had gone to the infirmary where Sasuke was being looked after and decided to go join her and see if there was anything she could do to help.

She chose against knocking and barged right into the room, making sure not to create any loud noises in case he was sleeping. Which was a complete waste of time and effort because as soon as she entered she saw a very flustered Sakura who looked thoroughly accosted and a highly irritated Sasuke.

Raising a brow she waited for one of them to notice her but neither did so she leaned against the door and listened to their conversation.

“You can’t decide that for her!” yelled Sakura.

Scratch that previous thought, it was an argument.

“The sooner you accept it Sakura, the better.” Replied Sasuke in a monotone voice. Now she was very interested. “And in any event, it’s not me doing the deciding, it’s the hokage. He insists… but I’m on your side on this. She already has an infatuation with that guy.”

“It still doesn’t mean you get to be rude to the rest of us. I can take it but the rest of the kunoichi aren’t used to you and your broodish, rude ways. Tone it down a bit.”

“I don’t see any reason to tone it down. They needed to hear it so I told them since you let them think it.” He gave her a pointed looked causing her to blush again yet she didn’t allow that to faze her.

“Going back on track, how do we tell her? She’s got a lot on her plate as it is and this will just be adding more onto it.”

“What do you prefer we tell her first? That you are being told to get married by your parents? That the hokage wants her to get married to the pervy Suna guy? Perhaps that I was bit by Orochimaru and am now at his mercy? Or maybe that I care enough about the both of you that I could kill either of you in order to get revenge?”

“I want you to tell me all those things. Some I know but some I need details.” She said causing both to turn their heads to her, clearly they hadn’t sensed her coming. She’d have to get them to work on that if they though they even had the slightest chance of passing the next round.

“How much of that did you hear?” asked Sakura. Her face returned to its usual colour and her voice didn’t raise or waver as she spoke.

She shrugged in return, “Not long. Just from when you stated- well yelled that Sasuke couldn’t decide something for someone who I assume is me.”

Neither of them gave her an answer to what she was hinting to so she crossed her arms and raised her brows. When neither of them spoke still, she sighed and walked over to where Sasuke was sitting and perched herself on the edge of his bed, trying to get a better look at the cursed seal.

“We will be finishing this conversation later so don’t either of you think you’re getting out of it.” She raised a hand to move his collar down and folded it to get a full look, “So Sasuke. How does it feel to have Orochimaru’s cursed hickey on you?” she asked genuinely however her teammates groaned and both face-palmed.

“You know that was the exact same thing Genma said?” asked Sakura as Sasuke muttered vengeance.

“Well he bit you and it left a mark. It’s also cursed so can you blame us?” she raised a brow and crossed her legs in her meditating pose.

She had been training up her ability so stay in one place so meditating gave her something to think about, Kurama’s and hers chakra.

“Oh, and please elaborate on this marriage business. I haven’t been updated on that yet.” She said calmly however she didn’t doubt for a second her eyes looked like waves crashing.

They both shared nervous glances before having a silent conversation between them, “Well, uh, basically… My parents want me to marry this guy from Kirigakure and the hokage said he would agree if I agree. The other marriage is um for you…” she faded off thinking Naruto would go off on a rant yet she remained calm, outwardly at least. “That Konkuro guy. He wants you two to marry in order to make the bond between our two nations stronger.”

Sasuke carried on for her, “It was proposed by the sand sibling’s teacher. What better way to unite the two nations by having the daughter of the yondaime hokage and son on the yondaime kazekage marry?” his eyes filled with mirth as he explained. Sasuke had never liked the system where ones marital partners were decided for them.

Naruto closed her eyes and took a deep breath before opening them up, “Okay… I’ll deal with my marriage thing with the old man myself why is Sakura getting married off to Kiri?” she quirked a brow as she regarded the other female of team 7.

Sakura figited in her seat before sitting with her back straight, “My dad wants-”

“You’re a legal adult in the eyes of shinobi. He can’t force you to do anything you don’t want to do. Old enough to kill, old enough to drink and live alone.”  

The conversation was quite normal after that, Sasuke and Naruto stating they wouldn’t let her be married off to someone she didn’t want to but then the conversation went onto Sasuke’s mangekyo possibility to which Naruto smacked him over the head for even thinking she would allow him to kill her.

 

 

 

 


	11. Chapter 11

There was a bounce in Naruto’s walk as she made her way around the village. It was a day before everyone had been requested to return to the tower and Kurama had just returned to his seal, making her feel a bit more safe.

She had yelled at the sandaime once she had finished her conversation with her teammates, saying he had no right to marry them off. Well he did with her as she was his ward and adoptive child but still. He had apologised and stated it had been a mere suggestion that he would take in accord for the future since the relationship between the nations was still on edge and an alliance like this would have secured them forever similar to the Uzumaki and Senju clan being united due to the shodaime’s marriage.

She hadn’t let him off on that and had yelled again about him not telling Sakura’s parents they couldn’t get her married off without her consent and he had replied saying he had thought they would know since a parent would want information about a job role before their child starts it. He had been shocked, though he concealed it well, that her parents hadn’t known and called them into his office telling them shinobi laws.

To say they weren’t amused was an understatement. They had yelled for five minutes before she set off a large amount of KI towards them and they had ceased their idiocy. No one wanted to upset the honourable daughter after all.

She had also met up with Temari a few times during those few days and the two blondes shared simple techniques or memories of their nations as Konkuro sat quietly watching them and Gaara stood in the back, brooding.

She had approached him once and he had tried to attack with his tail, however Kurama’s cloak had done her wonders to stop the attack. Another thing was the two boys hadn’t figured it out she was a jinchuriki and she had been taking some time to study Gaara’s seal.

Looking at the seal made her want to vomit or claw her eyes out. It was old, crude and dangerous. It was no wonder Gaara was unstable, and that his mother had passed away not long after his birth. Temari had told her the story and when she had spoken with Baki he had said Lady Chiyo had been the one to create the seal.

The name had sounded familiar so she had asked Kakashi sensei why and he had given her a fake smile, stating she was the grand-mother of the Red Sand, Sasori, a puppet-master who was Konkuro’s idol growing up.

Thinking of Konkuro made her think of how he was treating her. Apparently he had been told he was a prospective husband for her and had been… cooing towards her. It was so innocent that she could puke. She would have preferred he be himself and leer at her instead.

A plus side to this new turn of events, Gaara seemed to be in a worse mood than usual which she liked to believe was him being jealous. That or he didn’t approve of their ‘relationship’.

She hadn’t been paying attention to where she was going and had only started paying attention when a sudden stab of pain coursed through her side. She didn’t yell out, but she did flinch and clutch her side.

Glancing down she saw she was hit by… sand. Looking up she saw four wide eyed Suna shinobi. Baki, Temari, Konkuro and Gaara.

She clutched her side tighter when Kurama began healing her and all four of them came rushing. Okay, Gaara walked slowly but a girl could dream couldn’t she?

“We are so sorry Lady Uzumaki!” spoke a frantic Baki as he rifled through his pocket, no doubt looking for medical supplies.

She raised a hand and gave a bright smile, removing her hand from her healing wound as she did so, “No need to get any medical supplies, Baki-san. My Uzumaki blood means I heal a lot quicker than you would think.” 

The two siblings looked worriedly between each other and once Gaara came over they moved to the sides of him as his eyes glanced her healing wound, however he said nothing.

Baki looked to her wound also and furrowed his brows, clearly never seeing someone heal as quickly as she was. She cocked her head to the said, smile firmly in place, “It wasn’t a very deep wound anyway.” She was trying to get the attention off her, it wouldn’t do anyone any good for them to put two and two together and figure out what she was.

“Wasn’t that deep?!” yelled Temari whose eyes had yet to return to their usual size, “I can see- WE can see how much blood came out of that wound! There’s no way that should have healed that quick!” she pointed to her wound which was nearly completely healed and she made a mental note to thank Kurama for that.

She shrugged and gave Temari a pointed gaze and the other girl calmed down and gave an understanding nod. The others didn’t press on the topic and she was about to leave when a voice startled her, as did the hand on her shoulder, “Apologies.” With that the voice and hand left her however she could feel the heat and her heart didn’t stop racing.

She was sure she was red in the face as she nodded her head and carried one walking hastily. She had reached Team 7’s usual training grounds however she still hadn’t returned to normal.

No one had told Gaara to apologise to her, no one had told him to touch her, and no one had told him to whisper it into her ear.

The fact that he had done it on his own volition had made it, to her, a lot more intimate and no doubt if she told Sakura, she would say it was in Naruto’s head. That he was simply trying to stop her and apologise to her without others hearing but she didn’t want to hear any of it.

**_‘You seem to be living in your own fancy thoughts as of late.’_ **

She jumped, having not sensed his presence inside her head before jumping up the tree and sitting as she entered her mindscape.

‘What are you on about?’ she asked.

**‘I would have to agree with your thoughts of the pink haired ningen. Shukaku’s host bares no emotions besides negative ones for you, and that’s being generous.’**

She scowled, ‘Well considering all you feel is hate for the Uchiha clan I don’t think you have much room to talk, do you, you giant fuzzball?’ she hissed at him.

Not one to outdone he growled with squinted eyes, **‘I am merely helping you. That boy does not understand love and would never be able to love you.’** Of course Kurama was Kurama, so he threw her out of the mindscape and she received the image that he was going to sleep whilst grumbling to herself.

She sat there, leaning against the tree as she thought about what everyone was saying. Her team, Temari, Baki, the sandaime and Kakashi sensei had all said the same thing yet none of them stopped her. Naruto had only ever been able to learn through trial and error and it seemed even matters of the heart would be the same.

The thought made her deflate however the images she had seen flashed in front of her again, and she was reminded of those beautiful teal eyes, expressing more emotion than she could name as he smiled at her.

She shook her head, once again determined to not allow what people said to her to get to her. She would not stop perusing Gaara, they were so alike yet so different that they would make a good couple. She had learnet things about the silent red head despite his quietness.

Granted, most was from Temari, however she had learnt a lot about his behaviour and mannerisms such as when he was irritated with authority he knew he couldn’t kill, his eye would twitch and he was thump him index finger twice against the palm of his hand.

She was jostled out of her thoughts by three very loud voices. Looking down she saw Konhamaru, Moegi and Udon standing at the base of the tree, clearly yelling at her. Each supported red cheeks and large smiles even shy little Udon.

Smiling at them she jumped off the tree and ruffled each of theirs hairs, “What’s up?” she asked once she had thoroughly irritated them enough.

“Big sis! What’s this about you marrying that perve?!” yelled Konohamaru as he and the others all pouted and crossed their arms. The sight was even funnier considering they all had red cheeks as well yet she managed to keep a normal face. Just barely.

She sighed and shook her head, “It’s nothing Konohamaru. He’s a prospective husband for me, just like Sasuke and Kiba and Shino or even Shikamaru. Although, I don’t want any part of this one. If I have to marry a foreign ninja so be it, but I can choose them all by myself thank-you.” She gave them a nod as she crossed her arms causing the three of them to unwind and chuckle.

“But big sis! The old man said you liked that scary red haired guy!” he whined as he latched onto her leg, an indicator he wanted picking up.

“Now, now Konohamaru. You ought to know better than to listen to the old man.” She tutted as she picked him up and placed him on her shoulder and turned a bright shade of red.

“Sh-she must like him Konohamaru! Otherwise she wouldn’t be blushing!” yelled Moegi and she scowled and pouted at her.

Girl code broken. 

“Sis!” whined Konohamaru and she flinched, he was too loud and too close to her sensitive ears to be yelling.

Her predicament was bad as it was however the presence she hadn’t felt earlier made it a lot worse than before.

 

 


	12. Chapter 12

She yelped and placed Konahamaru on the ground, waved goodbye and shunshined away all in three seconds.

There were very few things that could get Naruto embarrassed, all namely being three words; Gaara No Subaku.

The other was getting ‘the talk’ from the sandaime as well as his old teammates. That was just awful, Koharu’s had been the worst.

Her face was red, and she cursed herself for not sensing him, Kurama for not telling her and Konohamaru for bringing up the topic when he there had been no need.

Sighing she smacked her cheeks in a desperate try to calm her cheeks however her hands were too warm for that. Thankfully someone with hopefully cold hands arrived.

She went over to Temari and gripped her hands and placed them on her cheeks, thankfully they were cold and she let out a long sigh.

This all caused Temari to look confused yet amused and thankfully she didn’t immediately question it, “Okay. How comes we’re using me as a refrigerator?”

She released her hands and gave an impish grin, “I was talking to Konohamaru and his friends about Konkuro being on my never ending list of potential suitors when he mentioned your other brother and he just so happened to be behind us at the time. I shunshined straight here without even asking what it was he wanted.” She whined and clung onto Temari who was grinning at her.

She ruffled the younger blonde’s hair as she though an arm over her shoulder and the two of them began walking, “You know Naruto… You’re kinda like the little sister I never had. But I guess that sounds a bit weird since you’re trying to date my sister.”

In return Naruto shrugged, “It’s not like family relationships like that are forbidden in clans, it’s quite normal really.”

“Hmm. You’re right, but the citizens would never see it that way if people of close relation married each other.”

The reason why it wasn’t frowned upon was to keep the blood of clans strong. The most known were the Uchiha’s who hardly ever married outside of the clan the same as the Hyuuga and Uzumaki, however the Uzumaki often married into the Uchiha and Senju as they all had similar chakra.

Naruto stopped them and pointed them to Ichiraku’s and Temari went with it, having felt hungry after training. “Hey guys! I’ll have my usual and she’ll have the same as me, just less.” She grinned as the two of them took their seats at the counter, Temari giving a blank face as she looked at the two of them cook and have a short conversation with her.

“You don’t know how happy I am that Konkuro isn’t here. I swear… ever since that treaty was thrust in the sandaime’s face it seems your sensei and brother can’t keep me alone enough. And it’s only been like three days!” she groaned and planted her face on the table which was nicely cool.

Temari simply laughed, “He does seem to be laying it on thick but only since he wants the best for Suna, and he knows marrying you would be very beneficial for us. He really does need to act like himself if he wants to win you over.”

Looking up at Temari she saw the other female’s eyes were glinting, “You know I would much prefer the attention from your other brother. Why can’t people shove the treaty under his nose?” she pouted as she sat up and crossed her arms, silently miffed by the situation.

“I could always put in a word to Baki sensei, saying you would be far more… complacent if it was Gaara.” Naruto tried her best puppy eyes causing Temari to break her calm façade and let out a few chuckles.

Getting down to business Naruto looked on seriously, “Speaking of Gaara… I wanted to discuss something about your brother’s seal.” Temari gave a nervous glance at the Ichiraku’s and she waved her hands, “Everyone comes to Ichiraku and talk’s confidential things and not a word of it leave the tent. So as I was saying, I need to see his seal again but this time not a picture, but in person. If I find him I’ll need to ask Sasuke for a few minutes as well but that depends if Gaara agrees.”

Their ramen arrived and the two of them started eating, once Naruto had finished her first bowl Temari spoke up, “”Why do you need to see it again and why do you need Sasuke’s help?”

“Well… the image you gave of it doesn’t show me everything. I need a few other things off your brother as well if I’m gonna override the seal with a new one-”

“I thought you were going to completely replace the seal?”

She shook her head, “I can’t fully remove the seal without Shukaku breaking out and Gaara dying. The best I can do is make a more powerful seal over it in order to override the old one, then after some time the new seal will remove the old one.” She waited for Temari to nod her head before continuing, “As for Sasuke, well he would make things a little bit easier for me but if Gaara says no then I’ll have to do this part on my own. I need to see Gaara flow of chakra, get a chakra sample and a blood sample. If Sasuke is there then he could see the chakra flow for me and tell me anything I need to know about it. His blood is something I need no matter what.”

Temari chewed her lip as she looked cautiously at Naruto, “Gaara… I don’t think he’ll agree…”

“Unless he wants Shukaku driving his insane forever this is his best bet. The blood sample will break things down for me… if I don’t have everything perfect I run the possibility of something going wrong during the sealing. The seal I make may not cater to something because I didn’t know about it and that can have severe consequences. I’ll speak to Gaara myself when I- uh- when I get a chance and tell him this. I’m sure he’ll come around.”

She gave a large smile which caused a dubious look to take over Temari’s face, “I don’t know… he doesn’t really seen to like you very much Naruto…”

She threw her hands up in exasperation, “Well there’s nothing else I can do. Well there is, I can knock him unconscious or use my female wiles to get him to see things my way.” she allowed her eye brows to dance on her forehead leaving Temari in a fit of chuckles.

Temari had just finished her bowl as Naruto finished her second one and paid for the both of them.

As they left a figure came into light causing Temari to raise her brow since Naruto had taken shelter behind her, “Well little brother, what seems to be the matter?” the sound of her voice left little to the imagination. She was enjoyed both of their discomfort far too much.

Understanding what she was doing, Gaara glared at his sister as he spoke, “They told me to come and apologise to her for having been rude initially. As well as to watch her to make sure nothing happened.”

Naruto’s face thankfully didn’t change colour, but she remained behind Temari, “Um I was talking to your sister about your seal. Are you two free to come with me to my apartment?” she asked as she looked over Temari’s shoulder.

 

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Temari gave her brother a stern look, making sure he agreed. The plan to invade Konoha was going well however it would go a lot better if Gaara had better control over Shukaku.

It would go even better if she could stop feeling guilty. Every time she saw Naruto, a small stone would settle in the pit of her stomach as she tried to fend off the image of the younger blonde upset. It wasn’t something she wanted to see however she knew it was going to be reality.

When that happened she wished she wouldn’t be anywhere near the blonde. Whilst Naruto may have an infatuation with her youngest brother, there was no doubt in her mind she would unleash the wrath of the nine tails on them all.

She had however thought of another plan. If Naruto and Gaara became close enough, their father could ask for a new treaty to be drawn up where the alliance between the nations would depend on them. Whilst Naruto would surely have no problem with the, Gaara would.

She would have to speak to Baki sensei about this new idea, no doubt she wouldn’t be able to do her duty for her village if the image of a desolated young blonde kept entering her mind.

Her thoughts only stopped when the three of them arrived at a door. She hadn’t even noticed they had been walking never mind made it to what she assumed was Naruto’s apartment.

Upon entering she could see a large mess of scattered papers, vials on the tables, desks, bookshelves and other things a scientist would have. However when she saw Naruto’s eyes gleam she changed that assessment.

Mad scientist was more fitting.

 

 

 


	13. Chapter 13

Naruto ignored the pointed stares at her apartment and instead turn whilst giving them both stern looks, “This is orderly chaotic. I know where everything is and everything is clean. Just take a seat in the living room just through that door. Everything is… plain.”

She made a grimace as she went to the kitchen to make them cups of tea and came with a tray of three, placing them in front of them as she made her way around the room, collecting her book, pen and all the equipment she would need for this little test.

She placed the second tray beside the other one on the table causing both sets of eyes to fall on it, one set cautious and the other blank. Hypnotically blank.

Shaking her head, she refused to allow herself to get distracted again, “Right so Gaara. I know you won’t agree to have Sasuke here so we’ll have to go through a bunch of tests and samples in order for me to get everything right. There’s no seals master here in Konoha currently so this seal will take time especially with the chunin exams going on.” Taking a deep breath she opened her note book and proceeded to point to everything on the tray. “Right so these are blood vials. One is for checking your chakra, the other for checking your affinity, and the last one is for several things such as compatibility with other things. Don’t worry too much on that last one. The thing here is for you to infuse a bit of your chakra into it and it’ll stay stored up in here till I take it out. The rest of this you can ignore, it’s just for my future referencing.”

She waved a hand whilst Gaara gave a sceptical glance at the needles. “To make sense of what my brother is not saying, basically, he’s never had his blood drawn and doesn’t know how the procedure works.”

Naruto raised a brow and shrugged before picking up, “This is the syringe where your blood will go in and this needle is called a hypodermic needle specifically made for taking out blood. If you look at the tip, it is sharp enough to pierce skin and enter the vein or artery to collect the blood from. Does that explain it?”

Gaara gave a short nod however that was the only indicator he gave to having actually listened to her. He seemed to be staring at her, for what reason she wasn’t sure. As much as she would like him to be paying attention to her it was highly unlikely.

**‘Your thoughts seem to be quite unlike yourself.’**

_‘Hush you.’_

She took the syringe and needle as well as the cotton then went closer to him, “Right, to take out your blood I need one of your arms. It needs to be facing wrist up and your fist needs to be clenched so I can get better access to your veins. You’ll feel I small pinch but if you do feel light headed I’ll stop and give you an energy drink. If you feel sick after you can use this bucket. As ninja we get injured a lot but whenever I go for a blood test I get really light headed for some reason.” She shrugged and Gaara reluctantly did as she requested.

Two minutes later she had all three blood samples from him and requested he show her his stomach before and after he made the seal appear and he did so at the same moment she sent out her own to feel his chakra. She chose not to dwell on the feeling of it and more on the flow of it, it was the exact opposite to her own.

Nodding she looked closely at the seal and noticed something she hadn’t noticed before and jotted it down in her diary before she forgot. Once again she nodded and grabbed the seal parchment to draw his seal on as she saw it. The picture was helpful but it was someone else’s handwriting. That and she just liked having copies so in case she lost one she could have another point of reference. This drawing also included little notes around it however before she could finish Gaara lowered his shirt and resumed glaring at mid-air.

“Right, this should all be done in a day or two. Hopefully by the end of this week I will have made a dent in the new seal and by the time you guys return to Suna, it should be completely done. Now general questions… would you like to go for a walk? Temari as well if you’re available?”

The elder blonde shook her head before stating she had to go and see their sensei before they were to due back at the tower however she encouraged Gaara to go with her.

Naruto had no malicious motives behind the walk besides getting the answers to questions he may not want his sister to hear.

They began a small walk and began talking when they reached a busy area, “So, I trust you’ve been sleeping well?” she didn’t receive a verbal reply, instead she received a nod so she continued, “Whilst you’ve had that small seal on, have you suffered from anything you don’t usually suffer from? Sickness, dizziness, loss of concentration?”

He shook his head so she once again continued, “Is there anything you think I should know about you that may have some effect on the seal?”

He paused for a moment and looked to a stall before looking away, “No.”

Nodding her head they carried on walking together in silence.

 

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.

.

Temari sat on the chair across her sensei next to Konkuro, “I know dad’s working on a new treaty as to not attack however we’re most likely going through with it since Naruto isn’t inclined to go out with Kokuro…” she looked to the two of them and when they gave her nods she continued, “Well, she just so happens to have a high infatuation with Gaara and I think that would work out better anyway since she’s working on making better ties with us.”

“Well if she was interested in making better ties she would agree to the original agreement.” Replied Baki however she knew she would only have to shove hard enough for him to agree.

“She’s trying. Come on, give her a break, she clearly likes Gaara yet has been giving Konkuro a go. That takes dedication.”

He gave a contemplative look as her brother let out an indignant sound, refuting any and all claims about her implication. “I shall send word to lord Kazekage about this, and will also have further words with Gaara. In any event, befriending the girl would be very useful for any future plans we could have.”

Temari needed a clearer answer, “So what do we do till then? Do we keep contact with Oto? Do we carry on how we have so far?”

Baki looked at her as if expecting those sort of questions from Konkuro, not from her. Which was quite obvious but she didn’t want to say she didn’t feel up to their plans due to her relationship with the yondaime hokages daughter, which would only cause trouble.

“Act like Oto is just another unknown village. Act like nothing is amiss, I have a meeting with the hokage later today after the exams, make sure you two and Gaara make it back to the tower in time.” With that he got up and left the two siblings alone in the room.

Konkuro was about to get up however sat back down when she spoke up, “I need you to stop pursuing Naruto. She doesn’t like it and is on the verge of running each time she sees you. She knows you like her in a way but she also knows you’re only going for her more strongly because of our father. It also seems to be getting on Gaara’s nerves. I’m not sure why since he doesn’t like her very much but it is, and it would do none of us any good to annoy him.” She gave him time to soak in her opinion however he still looked nervous.

“Our lord father specifically asked for me to pursue her, if, when Baki sensei messages father and if he says it’s fine for Gaara to do so, then I’ll stop, but I’m still gonna flirt with her, that is just natural.” She gave a sigh but nodded, knowing she wasn’t going to be able to order her brother not to flirt.

Flirting with pretty girls was like a second nature to Konkuro and there was nothing she could do about it, like Gaara’s second nature was to either threaten or to kill people, most of the time both.

Thinking about it, out of the three siblings, she was the only fully sane one and that made her feel a lot better about herself, but then again the spectrum of sanity wasn’t very high, even if she weighed it against her father.

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	14. Chapter 14

Two hours later Naruto was talking to Sasuke as they made their way to the grounds where they had to meet everyone else.   

The two were discussing what Naruto would do about the seal. The day Sasuke had been bitten they had made a counter-active seal over Orochimaru's seal that would help him control it better. 

Naruto had explained she wouldn't be able to remove the cursed seal of heaven from him as only Orochimaru's chakra would be able to do so. It would be possible but only if she extracted Orochimaru's chakra which was within the seal. That or if she ever met the pedo hebi then she could get a sample. 

She with held a cackle as she thought about the many different things she could do with a sample of one of the sennins. Looking around the hall, she could see several people had survived the forest and made it in time. 

Teams 7, 8, 9, 10 from Konoha were there, the sand siblings team, and a a team from Otogakure and another from Ame. She found it hard to pay attention to what the old man was saying and instead focused on Gaara's eyes.

They seemed to... sparkle the last few days. Nothing like Gai sensei when yelling about youth, however it was so much more different compared to when his eyes were hard teal.

She was snapped out of it when Sasuke began dragging her off the court and onto the upper court for them to watch what was going on. 

**'You know, I don't really appreciate being ignored.'**

_'Hey Kurama it's been a while.'_ she mentally smiled, not wanting people to question her sanity for smiling out of no where.

**'Hmph. It wouldn't have been a while if you stopped fawning over Shukaku's host and paid attention to me.'**

She didn't give an immediate reply and instead sat down with her legs crossed before entering her mind scape. 

 _'Kurama... are you sulking?'_ she held back a smile however one would have to be blind to not see the mirth in her eyes as she regarded the bijuu.

 **'Foolish jinchuriki! I am the almighty nine tailed fox demon! I do not sulk!** ' his tails wagged indignantly behind him. 

Giggling she made her way over to him and began petting his fur, eliciting a loud purr from the fox, causing her to giggle again. Upon hearing the giggle he stopped purring and retracted from her, sitting in a ball as he glared at her. 

**'Minus when I am allowed to leave your seal, you are the only one I can communicate with. You have your team and family, I have you and myself.'**

_'Aww, does Kurama get lonely without little old me?'_ she cooed. She knew at any moment he would lash a tail out at her and the two of them would end up fighting for a long time. 

 **'I don't know what the blond girl sees in you.'** he grumbled, making her tilt her head till she got who he was on about. 

_'Maybe my charm?'_

Kurama scoffed at her, **'What charm? Your chest?'**

She glared as she covered her chest, _'Hey! That's just rude! There's more to me than my chest dattebayo!'_

Kurama carried on, ignoring her in the process, 'Then there is the middle sibling, all he sees is your chest. I would have to assume your chest is also the reason Shukaku's jinchuriki pays any attention to you. Tsunade most certainly recieved a lot of attention because of hers. As does that Anko girl. I also have no doubt that the Hyuuga girl will grow to have an ample bosom to rival the two womens.'

He was paying her no attention even as she yelled about his being a pervert right to her face. 

She hadn't been paying attention to time and hte next thing she knew, she was being jerked back to reality. Sasuke and Sakura stood in front of her, irritation marred their faces as she grinned sheepishly. 

"Uhh... did I miss something?" 

Sasuke's left eye twitched, "Your match against Neji is next. The first match was Kin against Hinata, Hinata won. Chouji was aginst that Zaku guy and. He had initially defeated him after he got called fat but collapsed before the proctor declared the end of the match, meaning he lost. Shikamaru's match was against Dosu. The best part was when Temari pushed him over the railing. That was funny. 

"That flirt Konkuro was against Sakura and he won against her using his puppets. TenTen was against me and I won, but I will admit she was good with her weapons. Ino had gone against Gaara... he broke her leg when she tried to go inside his head but she'll be fine. Then it was Shino against Temari and he forfeited when his bugs had been threatened. Kiba was against Lee and that ended in a tie but now get up and go to your match woman."  

He shoved her down to the stairs and she glared before rolling her eyes and making her way to the arena. Neji was already there waiting and just as Hayate was about to start the match she raised a hand and spoke up. "Before we start, why don't we let Neji start talking? I refuse to fight whilst he monologues about fate. Hearing him go on about it once was bad enough." 

The room was filled with agreements in the form of words, cheers and grunts. Hayate gave him a chance however when he didn't talk he began the match. Naruto not wanting to subject herself to such a cruel fate threw a tri-pronged kunai behind him, hiraishined there and chopped the back of his neck, knocking him unconcious in the process.  

This of course elicited different reactions, Lee screamed about how un-youthfully his rival had fallen, several gaped faces, several blank faces and a few people laughing it all off till they couldn’t breathe properly.

Brushing off the imaginative dust from her trousers and shoulder she made her way to the waiting area where all the spectators were watching them. She stood between team 7 and the sand siblings as Hayate summoned them all to the bottom to select a number.

7 Hinata

1 Shikamaru

5 Kankuro

4 Sasuke

3 Gaara

2 Temari

6 Naruto

Naruto’s eye twitched at the numbers, knowing she would be fighting two matches whilst everyone else would fight one. Lucky bastards.

The old man gave another speech about how the next round was in a month giving them plenty of time to plan against their opponents. Her fights against Konkuro and Hinata wouldn’t be nearly as hard as her supposed match against Gaara. She didn’t doubt Sasuke’s abilities, however even the Uchiha heir was no match for a jinchuriki.

She quite liked this match-up. It allowed her enough time to practice as well as time to work on the seals she needed to get one with. The best part of the next month would be that Jiraiya would be coming back to Konoha to train her. Correction; he was already in Konoha as of yesterday.

She made her way to the hokage tower where she knew she had to be in order to officially meet Jiraiya. As she had grown up she had received letters from the toad sage and had on occasion sent one back whenever she could. She knew he was out keeping up with his spy network looking for Orochimaru which had lead him to Akatsuki.

She frowned at the thought of them. They were based in Ame and were hunting jinchuiki, at least which was what Itachi had told them during his years as a hidden agent within their organization.

The thought of Itachi upset her. She missed her elder brother figure just as much as she hated the citizens of Konoha for shunning him. Once again she cursed to the sandaime for allowing the situation to have gone that far yet she shook her head knowing there was nothing she could do about the past.

Before she knew it she was in front of her godfather and a busty blonde woman who was tied to a chair, gag in her mouth as she glaring at the old pervert.

“I’m all for perverted things and all… but I think this is crossing some sort of line, ero-sennin.” She spoke as she smirked leaning against the closed door.

The sandiame sat in his chair, shaking his head as he took a puff of his pipe, clearly amused over the situation at hand even though it looked to be very serious.

“Naruto, meet Tsunade. Tsunade meet Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, Minato and Kushina’s daughter. Also the host to the nine tails.”

Tsunade stopped stuggling against the ropes that bound her which was when she noticed a seal preventing her from using jutsu’s to escape.

She gaze the honorable grand-daughter a smile and wave before taking a seat next to her, knowing that somehow she would be here for a long time.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N TIME SKIP!**

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Naruto had just entered what was supposed to be a training ground but clearly wasn’t because training grounds weren’t usually full of holes, weapons, blood and- you know what they usually were however most training fields had lots of trees. This one was barren.

Squinting her eyes she saw there had previously been trees here however they had all been destroyed leaving only their stumps behind.

Looking around she saw the three heads she had been looking for, kind of. She waved nervously to Temari as the elder blonde made her way over to her, giving the younger girl a nervous smile. “Sorry about this, Gaara’s going a bit over-board.”

“No shit. I swear, there’s more blood here than when Sasuke and me spar and that’s saying something since we both know several A and S rank jutsu’s.” she whistled at the sight, not understanding how whatever Gaara had been doing was capable of such destruction. Unless it was a bijuu-dama then it was understandable.

“Forgive us Namikaze-hime. We did not mean to cause such damage in which they would send you to us.” Spoke Baki as he bowed to her causing her to wave her hand and laugh.

“Oh that’s not why I’m here. I’m here for a social call. Kind of. I need to speak with Gaara and Temari.”

During the past two weeks she had gotten very close to the three siblings. Konkuro, whilst still a flirt, wasn’t trying to pursue her, Temari was an amazing girl friend to have like TenTen however she understood the jinchuriki part of her life more than TenTen.

Then there was Gaara.

He wasn’t overly fond of her however he spoke a lot more now than he did before and often initiated conversations whenever they saw each other, which sadly wasn’t often since they both had training to do.

Gaara dutifully made his way over to the two blondes as Baki bowed once more before making his way to Konkuro leaving the three of them to go wherever they pleased.

They walked over to Ichiraku as Naruto began, “Well I have good news. I’ve finished your seal Gaara. I just want to run a couple of tests on you to be absolutely certain it will work without any drawbacks.”

“You mentioned something like that before but never specified. Could you elaborate?” asked Temari as they left the general vicinity of training grounds.

“Uh well… there really aren’t many. Basically if it doesn’t work you go back to the way you were before. Your chakra control might suck but I’ve got that part covered.”

Nodding Gaara spoke up, “What will you require of me this time?”

“Well… I’m gonna put some chakra into this practice seal I’ve made and I need you to push your own chakra into it as well.”

“Why did you put your chakra into it?” asked Temari as went past they went past the shinobi bar.

“Did I not tell you? Apparently not. Well basically, I’m fusing part of myself into this chakra to help you get better control over Shukaku. Whilst I don’t have the best chakra control, the chakra I’m fusing you with will basically keep Shukaku at bay. Sort of like the seal I used to help you sleep however this will be a lot stronger and permanently ‘tebayo.” She nodded vigorously as if her explanation was easy to understand however the sand siblings didn’t understand her simplified explanation.

Deciding to humour her they went along with it, Temari feeling the rock in her stomach grow heavier as she saw the blonde’s bright smile, and the way her blues eyes sparkled as she looked to her youngest brother.

Once again she contemplated whether or not she should tell her about the upcoming attack however she knew doing such would go against her village and kage, an act of treason.

Swallowing the bile in her throat, she forced her guilt away however only managing to shift it away from mind temporarily.

“Oh, have you managed to do that seal for your teammate? Sasuke?” asked Temari, hoping to change the subject.

Naruto nodded, “Yeah, sadly I couldn’t take it away completely but I did manage to remove most of it. It was kind pf twisted really. There’s a reason I dubbed Orochimaru as ‘Pedo hebi’.” She aired quotation marks causing Temari to laugh.

Naruto’s light mood was removed, however, as images raced through her mind.

_The arena filled with sleeping people._

_Suna attacking with the help of Oto._

_Orochimaru fighting against the sandaime._

_Gaara in Shukaku mode, rampaging Konoha and her citizens._

**_‘Well things will apparently be getting interesting soon enough.’_ **

_‘Shut up.’_ She replied weakly.

She could feel herself being held by two sets of arms as the ache in her head caused several black dots to cloud her vision. As she tried to blink them away she heard muffled voices.

After what seemed to be an hour but couldn’t have been more than a few minutes she finally got a hold of her bearings and saw she was being held against Gaara as Temari searched her to see what was wrong with her, eyes frantic as she regarded the honourable daughter.

Breathing deeply she ignored the heat rising on her cheeks as she panted out, “I-I’m fine… Temari. Just a headache.” She quickly detached herself from Gaara’s hold even though she wanted nothing more than to remain against him.

She shook her head as she looked everywhere but at them, “I’ll- I’ll call you guys when I’m ready for the sealing, hopefully sometime tomorrow or the day after so… be prepared.” With that she scuttled off, not before getting Gaara to do as she requested.

.

.

.

Temari watched as the younger blonde ran quickly, most likely to hide her embarrassment over being held by Gaara however she couldn’t shake the feeling that it might have been something more than that.

Shaking her head, knowing they hadn’t said or done anything incriminating in front of the blonde the two siblings stood still before Gaara carried on walking through the village.

Deciding it was best to watch over him Temari joined her youngest brother only to see he had taken them to the Sarutobi estate. She rose a brow to her brother, unsure how he knew where this place was and slightly concerned over that fact as well. It was no secret that Naruto lived here she really didn’t want to think her youngest brother was spying on the poor, unsuspecting blonde.

“Gaara? What are we doing here?” she asked as soon as they stopped at a tree.

She received no reply after thirty seconds and thought she wasn’t going to get one yet to her surprise he answered, “She seemed… distressed when she left us. I can feel her inside this building.”

He left out _why_ he felt the need to come here yet Temari felt like she already knew the reason, yet didn’t allow it to delude her. She knew Gaara was slightly fascinated with the young blonde however he wasn’t that fascinated. Although even she would admit to wanting to know why the blonde had ran off like that, it wasn’t like her. Not that she knew her very much, she had only known the younger girl for nearly 3 weeks now yet it had felt longer.

Shaking her head she noticed a large white haired man in a red hiori with a hitai-ate that had the katakana for oil on it. She recognised this man as Jiraiya of the sannin, Konoha’s gama-sannin. Orochimaru’s team-mate who had declared the snake his rival.

She raked her brain for a reason, any reason why Jiraiya would be here in Konoha when she recalled Naruto having let her know the man would be her teacher whilst her jonin instructor taught the Uchiha. She also recalled he was the teacher of her father, as well as her god-father.

At the time she hadn’t paid very much care to the fact, why wouldn’t her godfather teach her? But now with how she had acted earlier, it could be a problem. Jiraiya had a wide spy network that expanded to every corner of the five elemental nations, including Sunagakure. In essence, that could mean Jiraiya knew about the invasion and Naruto could have been told to keep her eye on the three of them however she didn’t think Naruto could be as open as she had been and be a spy at the same time.

But then again, the girl knew politics and democracy as well as seduction, the three of those things made a very bad combination when you were in the receiving end.

Not wanting to stay and risk being sensed, she cautiously took a hold of Gaara’s arm to try and take him back however he refused to budge. She turned back to look at her brother only to see his eyes had changed.

Shukaku had taken over.

Partly.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *author peeks nervously from behind a rock several miles away from people who read this*  
> 'Um hi everyone. Sorry about the late update. i didnt realise how long it had been. hahha.  
> 'ENJOY!'  
> *author proceeds to fully hide behind the rock.

“Gaara?” asked a weary Temari. She had never seen Gaara go only partly into his transformation without half his body being covered in sand. “You need to calm down. What’s wrong?”

She didn’t receive a reply, however she noticed Jiraiya leaving the blonde and said blonde making her way over to where they were. She stopped right in front of Gaara and raised a hand to his face before leaning up to whisper something into his ear.

Whatever she did seemed to have worked as his eyes went back to normal and she gave him a weak smile, “Sorry guys. I’m gonna be out of the village after tomorrow’s sealing and I won’t be back till roughly five days before the exam.”

“Going anywhere in particular?” she asked, finally back to normal.

Her reply was a shake of her head as she leaned up again and said something to Gaara before waving them goodbye. Temari found it odd that Naruto hadn’t questioned why they were where she lived to being with however favoured asking her brother, “What did she say to you?”

He looked at her and spoke, “She said I needed to calm down and placed a small seal on my neck where she touched me which would channel her chakra into me whenever she left something odd.”

Temari raised a brow, “What does she think that’d do?”

The two of them began to walk again, “She believes her chakra would be enough to subdue Shukaku.”

“Will that effect fathers plans?” she asked, although she wanted nothing more than for their father to give his letter saying to stop the attack however she knew her father well enough to know that he would do no such thing.

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.

.

“Are you absolutely certain? Could it not have been people pretending to be from Suna?” the sandaime asked Naruto as she stood between Jiraiya and Tsunade.

“It could have been. I don’t know anyone from Suna expect the four that I have mentioned and even then I don’t know them very well. But that doesn’t obscure the fact that Gaara loses control over the one tails and attacks us. Nor does it explain Orochimaru attacking. After all, ero-sennin did say he had already left Akatsuki.” She looked up to Jiraiya who nodded back to her, affirming her statement.

“Hmm…” the sandaime took a breath of his pipe as he crossed his hands. “Naruto. If I’m not mistaken, tomorrow you will be fortifying the seal on the kazekages son?” she nodded and he continued, “Carry on with that plan. It may be that he gets very angry and he lost control, your seal will help him with that.”

Naruto nodded in reply, sincerely wishing that the idea the sandaime had was the truth. She didn’t want to think that Gaara and his siblings were planning on destroying them.

Wait.

“I doubt they’re working with Orochimaru. He used to be a member of Akatsuki and they hunt bijuu. I doubt the kazekage wants to risk the safety of their jinchruiki.” She shrugged her shoulders as she nibbled on her lower lip.

“She has a point sensei.” Spoke Tsunade, the first thing she had said whilst the younger blonde had arrived at the office.

“Never-the-less, we will tighten security around the village, check on how many ANBU enter the arena as well as have someone check their identity, check everyone who enters the village and make sure there are plenty jonin during the final round should anything happen.”

“You forgot the part where you’ll be getting an extra protection up in the kage box as well old man.” Spoke Jiraiya, sending his sensei a look that left no room for argument.

Of course that look wouldn’t work on a kage, “Nonsense Jiraiya. I don’t need extra protection-”

“You’ve gotten senile in your old age. Orochimaru is your student and is younger than you. Meaning he can last longer in a fight than you can. If he catches you without many people protecting you, nidaime knows what forbidden jutsu’s he’ll use on you.” Replied Naruto harshly as she glared at him. “If anything happens to you Konohamaru will be raised by me. And you wouldn’t want me to corrupt your darling beloved grandson now would you?” she spoke sweetly causing everyone’s sweat to drop.

Naruto’s habits weren’t a secret and some would claim she was the embodiment of the three sennin together. She drank, perved on people and enjoyed using people in T&I as her test subjects for new poisons and such.

They all shuddered at the thought of little Konohamaru being a carbon copy of Naruto. And where Konohamru went, Moegi and Udon went as well.

“Fine. I will have two people guard me.”

“Kakashi and Gai or we have no deal.” Spoke Jiraiya.

“We may as well bring Itachi here. It’d be funny to see Orochimaru’s reaction to seeing him again.” spoke Naruto through chuckles and the others followed suit.

Clearing his throat, “Right. Sadly that won’t be able to happen unless-”

“Unless we have him henge. Come on old man! I want to see Itachi! It’s been forever since I saw him! Plus, Sasuke wants to show Itachi he can do chidori and I want to show the rasengan!” she had a large smile on her face as she imagined the meeting. No doubt they would go to the tea house Itachi frequented and order lots of dango.

“Okay okay. Just stop shouting.” Spoke a resigned hokage, causing his two remaining students to stifle their laughs behind their hands causing the professor to squint his eyes at them.

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**(MAJOR TIME SKIP! A WEEK BEFORE THE EXAM! Because I am too last to write what happens in detail what happens and if I did then it’d be filler.)**

 

If anyone was looking a certain electric blonde female they could find her easily. She was skipping and spinning her way round Konoha after having been away for nearly three week, giving her a week before the final round of the chunin exam.

She was quietly humming to herself as she made her way through the village when she caught a familiar scent. Sand, blood and a feint smell of flowers. Smiling her herself she trailed after the scent and wasn’t disappointed at the sight that greeted her. In fact, it was a sight that made her feel flushed.  

Gaara had apparently been training up until a few minutes ago and Konkuro had taken over, and it also seemed that Baki had worked him a good sweat.

He had just finished pouring a bottle of cold water onto himself when as she froze mid-step.

**_‘Breathe Naruto. Don’t allow Shukaku’s host to seduce you. As I recall, that’s your job.’_ **

_‘Shut-up! I’m not being seduced.’_

**_‘Of course. Return to the land of ningen and wipe the blood from your nose.’_ **

She flushed at the comment and gave a discreet wipe at her nose and was slightly irritated over being so easily distracted as Temari turned around, eyes wide as she looked at Naruto.

“Naruto! When did you get back?! And how long have you been standing there?” she asked with a large smile making her way over to the honourable daughter.

Naruto found she couldn’t give the elder blonde a reply as she found herself captivated by the same teal eyes that had followed her in sleep all the way in Mount Myoboku.

There was a… tint in them that hadn’t been there when she had first met him and it confused her; she didn’t know how to react.

“Um… I got back a few hours ago and just got here now.” She managed to reply after Kurama hit a mental tail against her head.

Temari was standing right in front of her when she leaned down and whispered into her ear, “Are you enjoying the sight of a wet Gaara? It doesn’t faze me but it should you.” She sang the last part before moving back straight again. Her comment caused a small blush to reappear on her face.

However she wasn’t going to be deterred and kept a large smile on her face before nodding.

Konkuro took the bait “Now what’s got you so happy Naruto hime?” he gave a smirk as he leaned against a tree behind Temari, his talk with Baki having either finished or placed on hold.

“Oh you haven’t heard?” she gave a quizzical head tilt as she regarded the middle sibling. He gave a shake of his head and she continued, “Well, Jiraiya sensei caught wind of Orochimaru’s location and he intends to bring him in for the safety of our jinchuriki.”

“What’s this about jinchuriki safety?” asked Temari, eyes slightly widened as had Konkuro’s and Baki’s.

She smiled, once again they had taken the bait, “Well it’s quite simple. Ororchimaru has valuable inside information of the Akatsuki whose plans are to hunt down the nine jinchuiki, absorb their bijuu’s and keep the powers for some plan of theirs. Even though we know this much, Orochimaru was a member for many years and could have even more information about them that would be invaluable for the five nations. He also know how to absorb the bijuu’s discreetly so should any of the jinchuriki meet him, they should report it immediately.”

She gave a small smile before latching herself onto Gaara’s arm, ignoring the shocked and enraged faces of the other three from Suna. All that mattered to her right now was getting Gaara to spill his guts and getting him the hell away from the pedo-hebi.


	17. Chapter 17

No success.

A whole week had passed and no matter what she did, she couldn’t get the sand siblings nor their teacher to crack.

She’d tried almost everything however if she went about poisoning or torturing that wouldn’t exactly be subtle.

Today was the day of the chunin exam final round and they hadn’t fessed up. Her only consolation was they had probably double-crossed the sannin however unlikely that was.

She sighed as she sat atop Hinata, kunai to the girl’s throat. She hadn’t been paying much attention to the match and had been going mostly on autopilot till she found herself in a somewhat provocative stance.

Shrugging she leaned down and whispered in her ear, “Come now Hina-chaaan… how much longer will you let people see me on top of you? Or maybe you want people to see you writhe under me?” she gave a small nibble on the girls lobe and that decided the match.

She girl gushed a nose bleed and passed out, face red as she laid immobilised on the ground. Getting up she wiped her knees and ran a hand through her hair and looked to Hayate with a raised brow.

“The winner- _cough_ \- is Naruto Uzumaki!” he let out another stream of coughs causing her to frown, rummaging through her pockets to find a particular scroll whilst making her way to the kage box. Once she arrived she was pleased to see the sandaime being guarded with Gai and Kakashi sensei.

Temari’s and Shikamaru’s match had been highly amusing and had seemed more to her as if the two were flirting rather than fighting against each other whereas Gaara and Sasuke were completely vicious against each other.

Sasuke had even managed to wound Gaara with his chidori however Shukaku hadn’t taken control. However Sasuke had been undone by his own pride, one of Gaara;s sand whips which he hadn’t noticed pierced his stomach causing him to collapse and the match thereby ended.  

Entering the kage box she frowned when she smelt something… familiar yet gross coming from the fully garbed kazekage. Her eyes widened slightly and she went to Kakashi sensei and whispered in his ear, “Pedo-hebi pretending to be the other shadow.” This caused a brow to be raised yet he nodded, whispering it to the hokage.

As to be expected of the sandaime, he showed no outward reaction and instead looked back to Naruto, “Did you have anything else to discuss?”

She nodded, taking out a vial from the scroll she had taken out, “This vial should get rid of Hayate’s coughing. Can I give it to him?”

He reached out his hand to inspect the blue concoction, taking a sniff of it, “And all it does it get rid of his cough? No side effects or… added surprises?”

She gasped and placed a hand on her heart, “You wound me old man. I use non loyal or none Konoha ninjas as my test subjects. Hayate is also a very good kenjutsu sensei.” She nodded earnestly.

The sandaime sighed and handed her the vial back, not even trying to defend his people.

Smiling, she ran back down the stadium to see Temari trying to get a safe distance from Gaara who was attacking with sand whips. Shrugging she went over to Hayate and tapped his shoulder.

Whirling around, he raised a brow and gave a small brow, “My lady?”

She raised the vial for him to take, “Here, have this. I’ll make you some more and do some blood tests on you after the exam but this will stop you from all your coughing. You’re like that because of a poison, right?” He nodded and took the vial of blue potion from her, looking wearly from her and the vial, “Don’t worry. I got it sanctioned from the sandaime to give it to you. It doesn’t do anything other than get rid of your cough.”

He looked up at the Neko operative before reluctantly drinking the vials contents. He began to cough a few times but when he cleared his throat, he seemed to be a little better.

“Feel any different?” she asked, notebook in hand waiting for a response.

Understanding what she was doing he turned to watch the match as he replied, “My mouth and throat feel less constricted but there is a feint warmth there that wasn’t there before. When I drank it, it was hot as if it was burning whatever was in my throat. Right now my stomach is… I can feel it go round because it’s warm and in certain areas it’s as I said earlier, as if it’s burning.”

She nodded writing it all down, “It’s burning away the worst of the poisons inside of you. It’s not gotten rid of all of it, and that’s why I want a blood sample from you so I know what’s in you and try to get rid of it. The poisons inside of you will fester and if not treated… I doubt they’ll kill you but it will damage your insides. Understood?”

He nodded, “I get it, hime. I’ll come looking for you with Yugao a day after the exams.” She smiled and gave him a kiss on the cheek right before he announced Gaara to be the winner, it turns out after a while Temari had given up on fighting against her brother, his ultimate shield getting the best of her.

Naruto was called onto the grounds as the sand siblings went up, “Is this really necessary? I mean, I can’t exactly lose against myself now can I?” she asked.  

“True, however you can fight yourself and then you’d still win, but if you were to lose against yourself then you have no right to be here.” Replied Hayate causing several confused looks and chuckles from those who knew about her clones which had seals on them.

Sighing she stayed in the arena as she awaited Gaara’s return. It took some time because he was in the middle of getting patched up but four mintues later, he arrived and they both took their positions.

After Hayate had announced the beginning of the match, neither of them made the first move, “So. Nice weather we’re having today. I looked at the clouds earlier and could have sworn a small drizzle would have started by now.”

She received a grunt for a reply as she heard him swallow. She smiled to herself, her tactic was to either psyche him out or seduction. Sure, she could go with fighting but where was the fun in that?

She shook her head, there was no point to do that, during her time with him he hadn’t succumbed and-

‘Try harder. I want to see him become putty in your hands. Do the same as you did the girl Hyuuga girl.’ Spoke Kurama, leering slightly as he chuckled.

Making a few clones she shunshined behind him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders from behind as the others latched onto his arms.

“I don’t really want to fight… do you want to fight me?” she asked into his ear.

He gulped again, looking straight and not at her chest which was up against both his arms, “We must fight. It is part of the exam.”

She hummed in agreement, “Or we could both bow out. People would understand. Well, besides your father. Oh wait that’s not your father.” She replied, dispelling her clones and wrapping her arms around his neck.

“What do you mean? The kazekage is right up there with your hokage.”

“Hmm. That’s what it looks like. It would seem your kazekage is missing since the person in the wind kage robes is Orochimaru. I would know his smell anywhere.”

He didn’t reply straight away, simply looking at the man in the box. Naruto could hear the people in the arena, telling them to flirt some other time. They were mostly merchants who would shut up if they knew they would get better trade if Suna and Konoha signed new contracts.

“You expect me to believe the kazekage is actually an S rank criminal?” he made no move to attack her nor push her away and she saw it as a good sign.

“You’ve been lying to me since we met and I’ve not questioned your loyalty have I?” his eyes widened slightly yet she continued. “Despite the fact I know you’ve sided with Orochimaru and planned to attack us today, I helped you with Shukaku. I didn’t have to do that. I didn’t have to persuade the hokage not to attack Suna and I didn’t have to go through all the trouble of making sure that no matter what happens, you and siblings wouldn’t get in trouble. Now tell me, which one of us is in the wrong”

He didn’t have a reply, however his mouth remained open as he struggled with a reply. “You knew?” was the only thing he managed to say, his voice more gravelly than it usually was causing her to shift slightly.

“Not from the beginning. That day… that I saw Jiraiya. I… I knew then what was going on. I may not have been truthful exactly but I… it’s an S rank secret that shouldn’t really be telling you…”

She stopped when she noticed something. The audience was very quiet. Looking up she saw feathers falling and the crowd was asleep, minus ANBU, jonin, some chunin and very few genin.

Genjutsu.

The enemy has begun their attack.


	18. Chapter 18

Not even five seconds after the explosion Baki, Temari and Konkuro landed a few feet from the two of them, Naruto hadn’t let go of Gaara yet.

“Look up on the kage box. Tell me that isn’t Orochimaru.” She spoke to the people behind Gaara and each of them did so, their eyes widening. “I tried to warn you. I told you what Orochimaru was a part of yet none of you listened. Call off your men and no harm will come to Suna, I give you my word.”

Temari and Konkuro looked nervously to their sensei who looked her in the eye, “You knew? And yet you did nothing to stop us?”

She shrugged, “The sandaime wanted to lock you all T&I till you divulged what was going on but I convinced him otherwise. We’ve been after Orochimaru for years, if he comes to us that makes our life a lot easier.”

“You… talked the sandaime hokage… out of having us tortured?” asked Temari, as if the words were foreign. She probably didn’t receive many threats of torture often.

“Look we can stand here all day discussing this or you can call off your men. If you don’t there’ll be consequences. One-” she raised a single finger, “I’ll be forced to attack your people, and since you’re attacking my home I will kill them. Two-” she raised a second finger and detached herself from Gaara and took a few steps back, hardening her eyes as she looked at them, “You will face the wrath of the sandaime hokage and Konoha’s jinchuriki.”

At that Baki let out a chuckle, “We have been here for nearly two months and have not seen nor heard hide nor hair of your jinchuriki.” He gave a sign for the ninja’s above to come down however before he could bark out his orders they fell to the ground, both with holes through their chests were her tails had pierced them.

Four sets of wide eyes regarded her however she looked anywhere but to the set of eyes that would distract her. “You? You’re the jinchuriki of the kyuubi?” asked a breathless Konkuro who looked a little green.

She had her tails waving behind her as her eyes turned red with a slit in them, her teeth grew to fangs, whiskers grew thicker and her nails turned to claws. She also had a thin layer of Kurama’s chakra cloaking her, _her_ ultimate shield.

She gave a curt nod, raised a brow and titled her head, “Would you like to call off your men? This will be the last time I give you that option.”

“Gaara.” Spoke Baki, his voice carrying a warning, “You remember the plan?”

Within her peripheral vision Naruto saw him nod, she ignored the pang she felt in her chest when she saw him do that however his next words bought confusion upon her. Upon everyone there.

“Attack Otogakure ninjas and protect Konoha ninjas.”

There was silence amongst them for a total of eight seconds before Temari pointed a finger at him, eyes wide. “Did Gaara just defect?!” she exploded, tilting her head to the side as she hit her ear a few times checking if she had heard correctly.

Konkuro nodded slowly, “Can you blame him? He just found out the girl he’s been stalking is a fellow jinchuriki. If I was in his position I might defect as well.” Konkuro looked deep in thought when he spoke again, “Is there really any point in attacking though? Our kazekage clearly seems to be Orochimaru and last I heard, my dad was the leader not him.”

Naruto had been focused on not looking at Gaara she hadn’t noticed him moving closer to her. She gave in and looked into his eyes and it was as if the world slowed down.

When she first saw those eyes, she though they looked hypnotic when they were cold she was clearly mistaken. Looking at his eyes now, they seemed to have melted and burnt at the same time, like a fire was ignited within them. She felt her breathing hitch and her heartbeat accelerate as he came chest to chest with her.

Leaning down he whispered into her ear, “…Your eyes…” she could feel his breath on her neck and ear as he spoke and she gulped, “...are so blue, so bright… so… beautiful.” With that he used a sand shunshin and went who knows where. She was too shocked, too red faced to bothered at that moment.

**_‘And you said you wouldn’t be seduced by him.’_ **

Kurama’s voice bought her out of the gutter as she shook her head, pointed a finger at the other three before yelling out, “Come down here you lazy ass!”

She heard a groan and only a few seconds later, Shikamaru landed next to her. She turned and faced him, “Shadow possession them. They’re not to move a muscle till I say so.”

He nodded and did as she said, the others three being too stupefied to even register what she said till it was too late. She placed a finger on Shikamaru and transferred some of her chakra into him, her chakra and not Kurama’s.

He gave her a smile in thanks and crouched down, “Well, now that I’ve had a pick me up, I’m gonna stay here and keep you all tied up.” She gave them a lazy smile as Temari grew red face, spluttering nonsense she didn’t care to listen to as she looked for Oto ninja.

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.

Three hours later Naruto was standing across the four from Suna, each on their knees as and ANBU stood behind each of them on high alert. Naruto was there to make sure Gaara wouldn’t attack even though she had the chakra suppressant seals were enough.

“Never in my life have I been placed in such a complicated situation.” Spoke the sandaime. He looked different today, garbed in his shinobi gear and his eyes were hard. Gone was the loveable old man and out came the professor. “You planned and launched an attack upon us, however you did so by order of your kage. However that was Orochimaru. And you didn’t know that. Inoichi has proven that fact with his memory sweep.

“So that leaves the question… what should I do?”

Tsunade cleared her throat drawing all eyes to her, “You forgot to mention how Sunagakure’s jinchuriki attacked Oto.”

“Also fact.” He replied before looking back to the four. “Right now all citizens of Sunagakure who came to Konoha are in our prison cells within T&I. no harm is befalling them and they are being looked after as well as they can be given the situation.”

None of the four spoke a word, they didn’t even raise their heads. Naruto reminded herself over and over she had to be impartial, not allowing her silly feelings to get in the way.

“Another fact is that their jinchuriki did not help us out us a sense of duty.” Spoke Inoichi, looking pointedly at Naruto causing several eyes to look at her in turn yet she refused to allow it to distract her.

“The reason isn’t what counts.” Rebuked Tsunade, arms crossed.

“Take war as an example. Starting a war for a petty reason over a good reason doesn’t mean people don’t suffer Tsunade-hime.” Spoke Jiraiya and Naruto to agree.

“He has a point. When Suna saw Gaara attacking Oto they joined him, believing the attack plan had changed.” Naruto replied.

Danzo didn’t seem to care though, “How can we be certain Sunagakure will not do something like this again should we allow them to go unpunished?”

“A new treaty. We shall sign a new treaty with a clause stating should either village attack the other without valid reason, the person who did the attacking will face punishment from the other village. Other parts of the treaty can be discussed and agreed upon later.”

“How do we make certain neither of our sides will attack the other?” asked Koharu, eyes squinted as she looked at her kage who simply sighed.

“A marriage alliance. More than one preferably. Have a few citizen marry internationally and have two diplomatic marriages.” He replied without missing a beat.

“And who do you propose marries whom for the diplomatic marriage? Your son is infatuated with one of our kunoichi’s and your grandson is too young. Tsunade-hime is too old for a diplomatic marriage as she is past birthing age.” Replied Homura who raised a hand to stop Tsunade from saying anything from the quip to her age.

“Homura has a point. At least one marriage should be from the kage bloodline and I see no other candidate.” Spoke Koharu when no one said anything.

“There’s one more child of a kage in Konoha.” All eyes fell onto Naruto including the four heads which had been on the ground a moment earlier.

This caused chaos in the room. There was shouting, arms waving, weapons waving and hitting.

Naruto sighed even though she could feel Kurama eating an imaginary bowl of popcorn as he watched.

She released her KI and everyone instantly stopped. She couldn’t see herself however she knew her eyes were hard when she spoke, “As the only person with the blood of a kage that isn’t already romantically involved nor inadequate, I believe I am the final choice.”

“You realize that if you go through with this, hime-sama, that you may not be able to become hokage. That has been a life-long dream of yours.” Warned Danzo.

“When you weigh the options, me not becoming hokage doesn’t mean much in comparison to peace.” Her voice was void of any emotion with her reply. Danzo had hit a button he knew better that to press.

“This meeting is adjourned. I want the Suna delegates, the remaining sennin and Naruto here within five hours.”

None of them hesitated to leave once the four Suna representatives had been escorted out, Naruto not even waiting as she hiraishined to her apartment, away from the eyes and ears of those who would be able to hear or see her tears and chocked sobs, the portrait of her parents gazing down at her as she did so.   


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N It’s been a month since I updated so as an apology I will be updating a few chapters today, roughly three in total including this one, and I wrote just today, btw, so there may be a few errors since I got home a little while ago from a wedding. I hope you enjoy

 

The next day the honourable daughter could be found in the apartment where the sand siblings were staying, under ANBU observation of course, with Sasuke as her support. She would have asked Sakura to be her support but she was working at the hospital after the attack, her second choice would have been Kakashi whose presence alone would shut people up if they so much as looked at her wrong.

Alas, Kakashi sensei was also occupied with the council. Apparently the sandaime wanted to hand over the hokage seat and there was some debate on who should get it. Danzo, Kakashi, Jiraiya or Tsunade.

She had a bright smile on her face as looked at the four foreign occupants in the apartment, no one besides Sasuke were able to read behind that smile.

She was on edge and high alert.

“Right… I was told the sandaime hasn’t come by yet, am I right?” she stated more than asked however she still received an answer.

Kankuro nodded, “Yeah. So we still don’t know… what’s really going to happen.”

She gave him a closed eye smile, “What do you think our next move will be Temari-san.”

Said blonde straightened her back and swallowed the bile in her throat. _Never_ had the younger blonde used any honorific with her. 

She cleared her throat, “Well I would have to assume Gaara wouldn’t be allowed to leave the village but that would only lead to further diplomatic problems since he is our jinchuriki so either Kankuro or myself would have to stay here whilst the other three return to Suna. There would an envoy from both sides going to and fro from our two villages to create a solid alliance… my hand would most likely go to a clan-head here in Konoha and I would have to stay here in order to- No that still wouldn’t work. If you left Konoha there would be no jinchuriki-”

Sasuke interrupted her, “What makes you think she would stay in Suna? She could always marry one of your brothers and go between the two villages. It’s been done before.”

Temari snuck a glance at Gaara and swallowed, “Well… she is most likely going to marry Gaara who hold more power than Kankuro. They are both also jinchruiki.”

“That doesn’t mean anything to Konoha. She is our princess and we’d be damned before we let some psychopath who doesn’t give a damn about her.” He glared at Gaara with sharingan eyes and she raised a hand to his shoulder, trying to calm down her teammate.

“I would not hurt her.” Spoke Gaara causing several pairs of shocked eyes to stare at him, except for Naruto whose gaze was carefully blank.

Sasuke reply was dry after he gave a humourless chuckle, “I was there when you threatened to spill her blood. I was there when you used your sand to try and suffocate her. I was there when the bijuu inside of you attacked her mentally. You cannot claim you will not hurt her when you have done so, physically and emotionally.”

Naruto spiked her chakra, a signal for him to stop and he did thankfully. “As it stands Temari-san is mostly correct, however so is Sasuke. I am still the jinchuriki to the kyuubi no kitsune and have my duties to my village. I have several other duties to be taking care of here in Konoha. Whichever of you two I marry, you will have to face the fact I will be going to and fro between the two villages.

“In return, Konoha will of course not argue over you going back and forth between our two nations and you were correct, you will most likely be marrying a clan heir and most of them were in my graduating class. Well, unless you count Kakashi sensei and Konohamaru. There are a few other clan heirs as well, however the more well-known took part in this exam. Chouji Akimichi, Shikamaru Nara, Sasuke Uchiha, Shino Aburame and Kiba Inuzuka are male heirs, Hinata Hyuuga is the Hyuuga heiress however you could marry Neji if you wanted. Ino is the heir to the Yamanaka heir and has no siblings so I guess the Yamanaka clan isn’t an option.

“Whoever you choose marry will be left for you to decide or we could choose if you don’t want to choose for yourself. They are all nice- mostly- and have their own personalities. We will send over information about each of them later today or tomorrow.” She finally paused long enough to look at everyone’s expressions and they were all… accepting.

She looked pointedly at Temari to make sure she understood where she stood in this, “I understand Naruto. I’m not going to argue or throw a tantrum. I am happy enough that you will allow me to go back and forth between our villages.” She bowed her head slightly and Naruto gave a small smile.

Baki cleared his throat and all the occupants looked to him expectantly, “What if the person you marry becomes kazekage? The only options for kazekage are those of the kazekage clan after all, hime-sama.”

She flicked her hair over her shoulder and shrugged, “I don’t wish to sound rude, but I don’t care whether I marry the godaime kazekage or not. The council will disagree with my saying this but it’s true. The four of us all carry the blood of the yondaime of our respective kage so I don’t see the immediate issue. The council may argue that it would be particularly fare since I’m in line for the title of rokudaime but it seems there’s nothing I can do about that anymore.” She felt a pang in her chest thinking that she wouldn’t be able to show Iwa and Kumo that after all their celebrating over Minato’s death, the Namikaze line hadn’t died out.

“I will also say this now, Gaara and Kakuro.” Both males looked to her when she paused, “I will not change my name. I will not give it up just for the sake of a treaty between our nations. When I say that, I refer to both the Uzumaki name and the Namikaze name.”

“I understand that but it’s not like the rest of the five nations know about the yondaime having an heir. We were all aware of him marrying Kushina Uzumaki however none of us were made aware they had had a child together.” Replied Kankuro as her took a seat beside his sister on the sofa whereas Gaara stayig perfectly still atop the kitchen counter.

“Not entirely true. Some people across the nations had known about my existence and had tried to kill me, they hadn’t been expecting me to have my own ANBU detail at such a young age.” She shrugged and continued, “Also, we intended to inform the other nations about me after I made chunin, which I have, which leads me to another reason for me being here today.

“As much as the sandaime hates to do this, he stated that Temari showed whatever it is they look for during these exams and said you may accept your promotions when you return to Suna. As for you boys, he stated that there was two things you lacked and therefore couldn’t make chunin. Out of the others who participated in this exam, Neji, Shikamaru and myself made chunin.”

 _One, two thr_ -

“Wait what?! Shikamaru?! The same Shikamaru who refused to fight me properly because I was a girl?!” yelled Temari and Baki held her shoulder to calm her down. Naruto understood her annoyance.

“Yup, the very same one. And if it makes you feel better, it wasn’t because you’re a girl, but because you’re the daughter of the yondaime kazekage and a blonde. It unsettles him. That I think he may have a crush on you.”

Sasuke spoke up and Naruto noticed his sharingan had been deactivated and she wondered just when he had done so, “Have the two of you decided amongst yourselves which one of you will be marrying Naruto? The longer it takes for you to decide the longer it’ll take for you to get out of our village.” Naruto hit him on his shoulder.

“Peace Sasuke. No need to be so rude.” He of course didn’t look like he heard her and simply glared at the two of them. 

Baki was the one who replied, “We have not come to full agreement on this as we are still weighing the pros and cons but we will most likely have… Gaara marry Naruto-hime.”

Naruto already knew that, she had seen as much within her visions unless she and Gaara had been secretly going behind Kankuro’s back which wasn’t very likely. She also knew that within time she and Gaara would get over any problems they were brewing currently and allow things to take their course.

That didn’t mean she had make it easy on him though.

Sasuke gave them a sharp nod and asked if they needed any more information and when they all declined the two of them left the apartment and headed off in their own directions, Sasuke to the training grounds and Naruto to the hokage office.

 

 


	20. Chapter 20

(A week later.)

 

Naruto stood in front of the sandaime beside Kakashi sensei and team Baki, waiting for the old man to say whatever it is he needed to say so she could go back to her lab and make a new poison, then find someone to try it on.

Hiruzen took a breath of his pipe before placing it down and taking his standard pose behind the desk, “Well I’m sure you’re all anxious to get this over with so I won’t delay this anymore than I already have. The treaty between our two nations is almost complete to my own amazement and to the amazement of my old teammates. All that is left is for a copy of it to be taken to Suna so your council may also get a say in what we have said. Those outside of tem Baki who came from Suna all returned to your village safely as promised and after today you will all be able to leave and return home yourselves.

“Of course that will come with the condition that both Gaara and Temari come and visit us often which Naruto and Temari’s chosen fiancé will also do. Have you chosen who you agree to marry or not yet?” he asked yet she knew he already knew the answer to that.

“I am afraid I have not yet chosen who I wish to marry however I will still come regularly and stay for longer durations because of that. I will get to know the potential boys a bit more then give my answer.” She bowed her head deeply to the sandaime and he simply chuckled.

“That is quite agreeable and admirable of you Temari. We thank you for your cooperation.” He inclined his head slightly and continued, “We will have a large apartment chosen and maintained for the two of you to stay in whenever you come to Konoha in the shinobi district. In fact, Naruto have you chosen one yet?” he looked to his surrogate granddaughter who nodded her head and gave him a scroll.

“It’s in the building across Kakashi sensei’s own apartment and is the top one, the largest one there with three large bedrooms, a storage room, a wash room, a kitchen, small dining area and a living room. There is a training ground only five minutes away if you travel via the rooftops and it has a beautiful view of the village.” she stated looking to the two siblings who would be staying there. She looked to the sandaime who nodded his head and she handed them over their keys, “These are the keys to the apartment. I also have a key and the manager of the building has a master key so we can come in regularly to make sure everything is kept well in your absence. If you’re uncomfortable with me having the key, whenever you come to Konoha I will give you my key to make you more comfortable.” They both shook their heads and with that, the four teenagers left the building.

Once out of the building Naruto attempted to make a quick escape however Temari wasn’t having it, “Naruto. Why don’t the four of us go and get something to eat?”

She cursed not using her hiraishin and simply nodded her head, “Why don’t we head over to the Akimichi restaurant? They have a wide variety of food options there.” They all nodded and silently they made their way to the restaurant.

Once there she spotted team 10 and called to them, “So Shika, how does it feel being a chunin?” she asked teasingly as she draped her arm over his shoulders.

He grunted however before he could reply, someone did it for him, “Troublesome, I’d bet.” Spoke Temari as she and her siblings stood in a line.

Ino pointed her chopsticks to her, “How’d you guess?” she asked sarcastically however there was no malice behind her words.

“I’ve spent more than five minutes with this guy. Troublesome is the most common word I’ve heard him say.”

“You may have tried to attack the village- but I like you.” Ino replied and Naruto snorted.

“Ino, you like anyone with blonde hair and a snarky attitude.” She replied as smiled at them before getting a table for the four of them.

After making their orders the spoke, “Soo… uh, Gaara will be staying here in the village for a few weeks then he’ll be returning to Suna. I’ll most likely be coming in a few weeks but I could come sooner.” Temari said.

Naruto leaned closer and fake whispered, “I know a lot of people here in Konoha say you and Shika are dating already.” She gave Temari a wink and the elder blonde’s face flushed red.

“We-we are not dating!” she yelled as she stood up, causing majority of the restaurants occupants to look at them, which in turn caused her to turn as red as Gaara’s hair.

“I’m not trying to be rude or anything like that, Gaara, I love the idea of you staying here in Konoha loger. Truly I do. But what’s the point when I’m being dispatched for a mission which will last a week tomorrow?” Naruto asked as he took a hold of her hand.

**_‘You and my brother’s host are being awfully mushy the last two days.’_ **

_‘Please don’t say it like that. It makes it sound like incest.’_ She groaned.

**_‘You are from a clan foolish ningen. Incest is not a bad thing within clans.’_ **

_‘That doesn’t mean you get to corrupt our relationship like that!’_ she glared as he simply bared his teeth in a sneer like smile.

**‘ _I can do as I please.’_**

_‘No you can’t. You’re stuck inside me and will stay there till you apologise.’_ She replied, crossing her arms.

_‘ **You. Wouldn’t. Dare.’**_

She quirked a brow, ‘ _Oh. Yes. I. Would.’_

Kurama released a growl and she decided to leave her mindscape and chuckled in reality, to which the sand siblings stared at her confusedly.

“I was talking to the nine tails.” She stated with a shrug of her shoulders.

Before anyone could comment their food all arrived and was given to them, once they were free of their waiters Kankuro asked, “Does that happen often? You talking to the fox demon?”

She nodded and swallowed before replying, “Yeah, Kurama and I talk a lot. We don’t tend to have very long conversations and sometimes it’s like time freezes when we do speak so it can be a bit odd.”

They seemed even more confused than before but thankfully dropped it.

.

.

.

Two and a half weeks later, Team 7 could be found together eating at Ichiraku together after having completed their mission in Tanzaku Gai. A simple mission to collect as much information as possible which should have only taken a week or so had taken double the amount of time as not many people there had the information they needed.

Overall it had been exhausting, each of them wearing disguises and having to play roles given by the sandaime. Naruto had found the situation a little funny considering Kakashi was in line for the title of godaime yet he had been sent for a mission outside of the village.

She sighed wistfully as she thought about what she had started, she had begun making her own spy network. Granted she had started it when she and team 7 had first left the village however now her network was branching out. She couldn’t wait for it to be the size of Jiraiya’s yet she knew it was going to take years if not a decade for it to get to that size.

A familiar voice bought her out of her musings as she turned around, “Naruto?”

She looked up and saw Temari standing next to Neji and TenTen, she assumed Gai sensei and Lee weren’t far away. She gave them all a smile and a waved, “Hey Temari, Neji, TenTen. How’s it going’?” 

They all took their seats on the table next to theirs and TenTen replied, “It’s alright. Temari here looked so bored out of her mind in training ground 8 we decided to have mercy on her and asked her to join us for training.”

Naruto and Kakashi both raised a brow, “I think it might have been more merciful to _not_ include her for _Gai sensei’s_ training.”

Those who understood chuckled at her comment, TenTen simply shrugged her shoulders, “It wasn’t that bad Naruto. I think they went easy on me since I’m a foreign ninja.” Replied Temari with a chuckle afterwards.

Just as they received their menu, two spandex clad males entered the stand and gave their good guy pose, the beach genjutsu behind them again as Gai tried to talk Kakashi into a spar.

Team 7 shook their heads with Team 9, their sensei’s sometimes reminded them of children and team 7 got up just as Temari spoke, “Oh right, Naruto, Gaara came back to the village yesterday. He left for Suna two days after you left for your mission and arrived expecting you to be here already yet we were both shocked to see you weren’t here. So right now he’s somewhere in the village. I’m just not sure where.”

She gave Temari a smile, “No worries, I’m a sage and jinchuriki. I can feel his chakra if I try to locate it.”

With that, team 7 left the tent and went their own ways, everyone but herself going to their homes whereas she went to look for Gaara.

 


	21. Chapter 21

Naruto found Gaara sitting in her spot atop of the yondaime’s head wearing the same outfit she had last seen him in.

“You know… you really should wear something other than your shinobi garbs here in Konoha since you’re not on official duty…” she spoke as she sat behind him, arms resting on his shoulders.

He tipped his head back a bit and gave her a small smile, “Welcome back Naruto.” Hearing his gravelly voice caused her to involuntarily shiver as she swallowed.

She had been away from him for two and a half weeks, however he had stayed in her dreams, in her visions and stayed in her mind during her mission. It hadn’t been easy to focus when she could practically hear him in her head all the time.

Nevertheless she gave him a wide smile in return and the two of them chose to sit in silence together as they watched the village bustle with life below them.

“The people here… are very kind. Despite everything we did-”

“ _You_ didn’t do anything bad. At least as far as the civilian populace is concerned. When it came to attacking Konoha, you chose to attack Oto instead. Sure, our shinobi know you _planned_ coup against us but they also know you didn’t go through with it. Most people here see it as you gave Orochimaru as a gift to us.” She chuckled at the thought.

She had seen Orochimaru all tied up and locked in the dungeon with three ANBU and two hunters guarding him at all times. The sennin looked miffed to say the least.

“How are you though Gaara? Is everything alright in Suna?” she asked, genuinely concerned since she could still see the black marks under his eyes.

“I am fine.” He leaned his head against her chest and she said nothing, simply raked her hand through his red locks, “And as for Suna… there is nothing wrong there. The treaty document was signed just a few days ago by all members of the council, no one dared to change a thing the sandaime wrote, stating he was being far more merciful than we deserved.”

She decided not to correct him on his comment and instead specified on her first question, “Are you sleeping alright?”

“I am, I just simply do not sleep for very many hours at a time, an old habit due to Shukaku that I doubt will go any time soon.” She nodded in understanding.

“Old habits die hard. It’s a bit like my bad habits which I still do. Stuff like my experimenting and such.” She looked down and saw his eyes were closed and his breathing had levelled having fallen asleep and gave smiled at the sight.

They were found in that pose, Gaara leaning into her chest as she massaged his scalp, as Hayate and Yugao reached the top of the yondaime’s head. They both bowed and Hayate spoke, “We received you message via your summons to come find you, my lady.”

She blinked before recalling she had indeed sent out of her gama to pass the message along the day before, stating she wished to see them. “I wanted to see if the medication I put you on had been working? And if you have been taking it as I told you to.” She looked to both of them.

Hayate may have been several years older than Yugao however the girl was far more responsible in regards to Hayate’s health.

His reply was slightly more hushed than before, “I feel almost like before. I hardly ever cough, there is no burning sensation in my stomach and I can keep all my food down. I’ve been training with Yugao as well, and I don’t feel winded nor as tiered as I was before either.”

“He’s been taking his medication after waking up, with each meal and snack as well as before bed, making it every three or so hours.” Naruto nodded her head.

She was glad he was feeling better and said so, the two of them leaving after bowing to her, thanking her once again, leaving Naruto with a sleeping Gaara.

Two hours passed which was when he woke up, his head in Naruto’s lap as she read a fuinjutsu scroll. She didn’t know he had woken up, she was that engrossed, and only noticed when she felt his fingers on her face and his other hand sifting through her open shoulder-length hair.

“Good morning sleepy head. Did you sleep alright?” she asked and teased at the same time, a small smile on her face as she looked between him and her scroll.

He didn’t reply, instead focusing on her hair. She had cut it in Tanzaku Gai. She had a fringe in the middle of her hair and on the right, it was spiked up a bit and the left side was clipped with three different hair clips. The rest of her hair was simply flowing down however now you could see her earring in her left ear. Each one red with a swirl, indicating how many levels the sealing arts she had mastered. There was 15 in total to master and she had 8, which even for an Uzumaki was impressive, however she wouldn’t be that far ahead without the aid of her shadowclones.

“I didn’t notice your ear piercings before.”

“Hardly anyone did so I thought changing my hair style will get people to see. I’m not a very vain person, however these show how far ahead I am in fuinjutsu and I’d like people to see that. To see the kyuubi jinchuriki amount to more than a frontline attacker.” He nodded in understanding. Here in Konoha people didn’t see him as a weapon but as a person, it was a nice change compared to back in Suna.

“How long are you staying here on Konoha for?” she asked when neither of them said a thing after a few minutes.

He sighed and stretched slightly, “I leave tomorrow afternoon. We still have no kazekage and we will have none till my siblings and I all become chunin. Once that is done, we will have a fight to see who is the strongest or wisest and that person will become kazekage.”

She gave it some thought, “So Temari stands on equal footing for becoming kazekage then?”

“Not really. One needs to vote of the council and whilst Temari is a formidable foe and diplomat, the people on the council are old and do not think a woman should rule a village.”

She chuckled at that logic, “If women were kage there would be no wars. Just villages not talking to each other.” Gaara joined her in her laughter as he thought about five female kage not talking to each other.

“There is also the fact Temari will have to marry a Konoha clan heir and she will have to spend most of her time in Konoha because of that. She cannot becoe Kazekage. In that case it will me be Kankuro and myself fighting for the seat and as I am stronger it is more likely that I will get the seat. However, equally as I am stronger, he has more allies on the council, so we are on equal footing.”

“Suna democracy is so much more interesting than Konoha. Here we have a meeting and discuss who will make a good kage but there a certain criteria’s that need to be met.  One is you need to have a relationship with a previous kage. Whether it be friend, teammate, teacher, family or significant other. Then you need to have a reputation across the nations and lastly a relationship with the kyuubi jinchuriki. The shodai was married to the first jinchuriki, then the nidaime was her sister in law, the sandaime often went to the home of Lady Mito and was her friend, the yondaime was married to the jinchuriki, my mother. It’s that sole reason Danzo has little standing to become godaime. I have no relationship with the man so he cannot claim the seat.” She let out a cold laugh thinking about how annoyed the old war hawk must be because of that little fact.

Gaara’s teal eyes gleamed as she spoke about their system causing her breath to hitch. She had always been fascinated with his eyes since the beginning, they drew her in and made her forget everything else.

“I love the colour of your eyes. They were what drew me to you.” She murmured yet he heard her, his cheeks dusted pink yet she ignored it and settled for smiling at him.

“You whisker marks.” He said and she furrowed her brows. “When I saw you it was your whisker marks that caught my attention.”

She laughed at that, those were usually the last thing people noticed. It was usually her bright hair or her eyes and then her whisker marks. “Those are the marks I’ve had since birth, marking that one of my parents was the kyuubi  jinchuriki.”

He hummed and replied in a quiet tone, “So… if we ever had a child, they would have your whisker marks.”

She could feel her face heat at his gaze and question yet she nodded, “Yeah. I hope you’re prepared Gaara. I’m an orphan so you should be warned that I want a big family.” She whispered as she placed her forehead to his, a small smile on her face as she thought about it.

 

 


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N right so the other three chapters were supposed to go up yesterday but I was having a wifi problem that wouldn’t let me upload them so I started working on this one.

 

One month later a certain blonde haired, blue eyed shinobi could be found standing beside her dark haired teammate at the gates of Sunagakure no Sato awaiting entry.

“I’m sorry miss, you don’t have permission to enter, nor does your teammate.” Spoke one of the gate guards. He was sitting as he looked at a scroll of names.

“And _I’m_ telling you, I’m a foreign dignitary. Technically. My name is Naruto Uzumaki- Namikaze, I’m the daughter of the yondaime hokage who is engaged to Gaara no Subaku. My teammate is Sasuke Uchiha, the last Uchiha. Your council is already aware we would be coming here and if you don’t believe me, go and call one of them. But don’t take long, this heat is gonna give us _heat stroke_.”

She fanned her face as the two of them waited for the stupid gate guards to ask someone about allowing them entry.

It was stupid, Suna was already aware the two of them were coming so the gate guards should have been made aware so they wouldn’t have to go through this crap upon entry. The worst part was she couldn’t blame the people on duty, it was their job to make sure nobody suspicious came into the village.

“Are these walls taller than the ones in Konoha?” asked Sasuke beside her and she took a look, unable to tell unless she ran up them, however she knew the guards would never allow it.

“Not sure… we can always ask someone when we get in.” she shrugged and continued to fan herself. Naruto was used to the heat, her body temperature ran hotter than the average human after-all however the land of Wind was unbearably hot for her, despite the outfit she had bought just for hot weather.

It was another seven minutes and forty-three minutes before one of the guards came back and confirmed they could go through, apologizing for the inconvenience.

They were escorted to the kazekage tower which looked more like a giant jar- it even had a _lid_.   

She elbowed Sasuke in the stomach when she heard him snicker, it wouldn’t do any good to make fun of their allied nation’s kage tower. Even if it did look funny it looked very creative.

They found their way into the kazekage office and she wasn’t surprised when she didn’t see an official kazekage behind the desk, however Sasuke was given by the way his eyes widened by a fraction.

The old lady behind the desk had grey hair and was wearing a white shawl over a green garb. Now that she thought about it, a lot of the citizen here were either wearing red or green and not a single person was wearing _blue_. The colour of the land of Wind.

“Welcome to Sunagakure no Sato, hime-sama, Uchiha-san. We apologise for the inconvenience at the gate. The list of whoever is allowed into our village is changed daily however the first person on today’s shift took the wrong scroll. He took the previous months scroll and not this month’s scroll.” She gave a bow which wasn’t too deep but it was not done so out of arrogance, but because she was old.

“Are you by any chance Lady Chiyo? The grandmother to Sasori of the Red Sand?” asked Naruto, barely supressing her glee.

The lady furrowed her brow and nodded her head, a small smile on her face. Naruto withheld a grimace, given the lady’s reaction she didn’t know what Sasori was up to these days.

“I mean you no offence, Lady Chiyo, but would you by any chance know where Sasori is?”

“Hmm… I would have to say no. I haven’t seen my darling Sasori in years.”

“Um… I don’t know how to say this but… your grandson is a member of Akatsuki who are hunting down the nine jinchuriki for the bijuu’s they hold, extracting them over a three day course of pure agony leaving them dead. Akatsuki is also a group of S-rank rogue ninja who have killed hundreds. I don’t think I’ve missed anything…” she placed her thumb under her lower lip as she bit the tip.

“WHAT?!” Lady Chiyo exclaimed as she took a hold of Naruto’s forearms, nails digging into her skin. Kurama elicited a growl in her mindscape, claws digging into the grass of her mindscape.

Not even a moment later Lady Chiyo was slung across the room by a sand tail, said tail wrapping around Naruto as Gaara came and stood beside her, teal eyes glaring at the elder woman.

“Naruto are you alright?” asked a frantic, wide-eyed Temari, taking the other side of her that Gaara wasn’t at.

“Lady Chiyo, can you explain why you were man-handling Naruto-hime?” asked Baki who was standing behind her.

_‘Where the hell did these guys comes from?! And how’d they get so close?!’_

**_‘I wish to tare the woman apart! Release me and I’ll do so!_** _’_ he roared and she figured he wasn’t going to answer her question.

She looked at Temari with a confused smile, “I’m fine?” she asked more than stated and looked at Gaara. The seal she used on Shukaku left a result similar to the result that her seal did, allowing him to channel Shukaku’s chakra whenever he got angry.

His eyes had changed into Shukaku’s eyes so she placed a hand on his arm, leaning up to give him a kiss on his cheek before going in front of him, “I’m fine Gaara. She was just shocked by what I said, that’s all.” She murmured to him.

She watched as his eyes fluctuated between his teal eye colour to Shukaku’s golden and black eyes, and after a minute Gaara won the battle of control. His shoulders sagged and his right arm wrapped around her, drawing her to his side.

She looked behind her and saw Sasuke watching with sharingan eyes, amusement clear on his face. Everyone from Suna besides Gaara bowed to her and simultaneously apologised to her, causing her to scratch the back of her neck.

“It’s alright guys, really. No harm no foul.” She really, really didn’t know how to react when lots of people bowed to her and the same time for a long duration of time. Having someone bow for like two seconds or so was alright, it was a greeting, but long durations is something _Kurama_ wished she would do.

Gaara didn’t even wait for whatever they were going to say, instead using a sand shunshin to teleport them to… somewhere.

Not even a moment after the sand stopped swirling around them, his arms wrapped around her, crushing her to his chest. She chuckled at his antics and returned the hug, tiptoeing slightly to be the same height as him.

He released her and took a hold of her arms and examined them, “Kyuubi’s already healed me, and besides she only dug her nails in slightly and I hardly felt it. I’ve had much worse.” She stated, looking amusedly at him.

She took in his appearance, he looked dishevelled most likely from training. His clothes seemed rumpled, gourd slightly out of place and his hair was messy. She refrained from messing it up even more just so she could weave her fingers through it and fix it.

_‘I wonder if I can convince him to keep his hair long and not short…’_

**_‘You want_ ** **his _hair long when you got_ yours _short?’_**

_‘It’s not short just shorter than before. Besides, if I kept it long whilst in Suna... Rikudo sennin have mercy.’_

**‘ _Hmm… if only there was a way for you to cool down… looks like you will have to suffer.’_**

_‘Bastard.’_

“Come. I’ll show you around the village.” he took her hand in his and they made their way around the village.

There was lot of sand, lots of homes, many shops and restaurants, lots of people but it wasn’t like home. This was probably how Gaara and Temari felt when they stayed in Konoha and she had a newfound respect for them.

“You’ve been awfully quiet, do you not like the village?” he asked when they stopped at the top of the wall surrounding the village. From up here she could see eight straight paths leading to the kazekage tower which she had been informed is also the kazekage clan’s home.

Oh and the wall was a longer than the one surrounding Konoha.

She shook her head and gave him a smile, “It’s not that. The village looks lovely and I’m sure it’s made a lovely home for her citizens… but it’s so- so different from Konoha.”

He nodded and placed her between his legs so her back was to his chest. “I can see the differences but why don’t you tell me what differences make you miss home?”

She shivered as she felt his hands brush up and down her bare arms, “There are no lakes nor trees anywhere, most likely due to this being a desert and all…”

He nodded, breathing in her scent from her hair and neck, “I’m sure we can do something about that.”

She giggled at his ministrations, she was very ticklish after all. “If I get permission from your council, I’ll do some minor things to the village.”

He leaned back slightly and looked down to her, smile on his face as his eyes looked lighter than before, “Oh? Can I know what changes you want to make and how you would go about them?”

“Suna’s main problem is the lack of water in this desert land so I could get my shadow-clones to use an earth jutsu to make an underground tunnel and a large crater with another jutsu and fil it with water from a water jutsu. Get it flowing under the whole village and start up some agriculture. Don’t get me wrong, you’re village looks beautiful, but damn the whole thing is in the same colour. It needs some green.” she nodded to herself and she felt Gaara laughing behind her rather than hearing and she ignored it, a smile on her face. “We’ll definitely need an irrigation system as well, similar to the one in Konoha.”

She continued mumbling to herself and Gaara sat quietly behind her as she did so, content to simply listen to her ramblings.


	23. Chapter 23

The next day Naruto could be found in the kitchen of the Kazekage mansion and the room was filled with many different tantalizing scents which drew down all the occupants.

Temari had offered to help but the younger blonde declined, Kakuro knew he would just throw Naruto off her cooking so he sat and showed or pointed where the things she needed were. Gaara came down at the very end to see the large variety of foods she had prepared and Sasuke stood behind him due to the narrow staircase.

When they all moved to sit down Sasuke was the first to say something, “There’s nothing inside this right? No poisons? No weird concoctions that’ll do weird things to kekkei-genkai?” he asked her warily, recalling the time she had accidently mixed up a powered poison for spice that had his sharingan wacky for weeks.

She slapped the back of his head, cheeks dusted a feint pink, “There’s nothing wrong with my cooking. The sandaime checked all my things and separated the poisons from the spices.” She stuck her tongue out and moved Gaara’s plate before he could put anything on it, causing all brows to raise.

Except Gaara’s of course, he had none.

Ignoring all the looks she was receiving she gave him a plate she had already made for him and placed a small box wrapped in black paper. He looked at the box and then to her and she realised he probably didn’t get it, “Its January 19th. Happy birthday Gaara.”  

She gave him a bright smile, ignoring the incredulous faces of his siblings. After a whole twenty seconds of staring Temari hit the back of Gaara’s head, “Well open it.”

He blinked a few times before reaching to open the small parcel, delicately working around the black wrapping and saw it was a box. Opening the lid he saw a necklace with a circular red pendant which had a black swirl in the middle.

The Uzumaki swirl.

The three siblings looked to her confused why she would get him and Uzumaki necklace. “I know you don’t belong to the Uzumaki clan and that I’ll be marrying into the kazekage clan but I… I just wanted something to remind me of my dead clan. All of Konoha’s chunin flak jackets have the Uzumaki clan symbol in the back and the swirl on our headbands in the Uzumaki swirl as well so…”

“You’re so adorable!” yelled Temari as she hugged the shorter blonde to her chest and Naruto was very happy she wasn’t wearing her breast plate or that would have hurt. “You can paint the whole mansion- well except the office- in Uzumaki swirls if you want.” She cooed to the younger girl who was having a hard time breathing.

Gaara saw her struggle and used his sand to remove his sister, “Stop suffocating my fiancé.”

Naruto withheld her glee at the comment and instead looked back to the red head, “So… do you like it?”

Instead of answering he raised the necklace and put it on which was when he felt the heat coming from it. “It’s… warm.”

She giggled, “I’ve infused it with my chakra. It’s made of glass and was cut out by Kakashi sensei and together we managed to get the swirl in place and then I infused it with my chakra. It really doesn’t do anything till you break in which case Kurama’s chakra and mine will leak out and attack any hostile entities within a two miles radius.” She nodded sagely as she spoke, taking a bite out of her own plate of food.

She looked at everyone and saw the sand siblings hadn’t eaten, “Do you guys not like my cooking?” she asked, slightly hurt by the prospect of someone not liking her cooking. She worked hard to get where she currently was with her cooking skills and would continue to do so if they didn’t like it now.

The three sat back down and began eating their food, each stating it was heavenly compared the food they usually ate here in Suna, to which she replied most of the ingredients she had bought with her from Konoha. The rest of the meal was a quiet affair before the three siblings prepared to leave for their training session to which Naruto stated she was going to see Suna council and Sasuke said he was going to have a look around the village.

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“My lady. I understand your need to make your future home… more homely but these changes are rather drastic.” Spoke a male council member, she didn’t remember his name nor could she see his face.

“Drastic as my changes may seem they will in the long run benefit your nation. You do not have many if any water users here and due to the fragile relationship between the nations, you have not asked for any to aid you. You require more water here in Suna and we can connect a tunnel to the valley of end and other water supplies on Konoha.

“My hand in marriage is not just going to be on a piece of paper. I will be a shinobi of Sunagakure and I wish to help. Right now I’m pointing out simple things that can be easily rectified but I need permission to start doing them.”

“This is a desert, and we are desert people. We are used to it.” Replied a shorter, female council member.

“But are your new-borns used to it? Are your infants used to it? Why subject the new generation to the same pains you were subjected to just because you refuse to accept the help of a Konoha shinobi?” she looked at all of them in the eye and found something she hadn’t seen before, “Or is it because I am the daughter of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki, both of whom did severe damage against your forces in the third war?”

“You speak of matters you know nothing of!” yelled a chubby person. She couldn’t identify their gender.

“Looks like I hit the mark to me.” she muttered under her breath before clearing her throat. “Look, I get it. You’d rather see me dead than see me fix your village or married to your jinchuriki but you’re gonna have to face the fact that you can’t do jack shit about me nor my relationship with Gaara, Temari and Kankuro. So. How about you all get off your high horses and accept. My. Help.” She stared at each member slowly with her eyes bled red, Kurama’s hate feeding into her chakra labouring her breaths as she tried to keep it from releasing into the air.

The people of Suna were used to the hate of Shukaku but not the hate of the nine tails- two completely different things.

 ** _‘Eight whole tails worth of hate difference.’_** He said through growls.

“Never in my life have I been so disrespected. You will learn your place and you will learn to respect this council!” yelled another member.

_‘This lot are more volatile than Konoha’s council and we have Danzo.’_

“I don’t usually care to do this because why use someone else’s work to your advantage but with you lot I’ll make an exception.” She realised she was making no sense but continued anyway, “I am the daughter of the yondaime hokage making me some glorified princess. Now if I were the fire daimyo and you spoke to me like that, we’d have problems but I’m not. I am jinchuriki to the most powerful bijuu. I am a seals master who _helped you_ all do something none of you were capable of doing.” She looked at each of them, her nails growing into claws and her teeth to fangs, “I helped you to control the demon you crappily sealed into your yondaime’s son. So tell me, why can you accept my help to help him but not accept it to improve your village?” 

She didn’t realise she was releasing KI and when she noticed she didn’t care. They were being prideful bigots that she wished she could knock some sense into.

When someone spoke it was someone Naruto had yet to have heard anything from. Lady Chiyo. “She has a point. I was always told that a person must change with the times or they will be left behind. This is one of those instances. Konoha has thrived and is still thriving, not because it is the first village nor because it has the most powerful shinobi but because it evolves. I am willing for the princess to change our home for the better, what about the rest of the council?”

Naruto felt like hugging the woman and bringing back her grandson just so she could slap the boy silly as a present for backing her up. But alas, she couldn’t do but she made a mental note to thank the village elder at a later time.

It took a while but the majority of the council agreed to her propositions as long as she was assisted by Suna shinobi and as long as she kept them up to date with her plans.

Accepting their demands she left the room with a withheld smile as she left to go to the kazekage mansion and set everything up.

 


	24. Chapter 24

_‘Shukaku, allow me to give you an early warning.’_ Spoke Naruto as she froze the Ichibi with her glare, _‘You breathe a word of this to Gaara before he gets to his house and I will drive you insane.’_

 ** _‘Kurama, bro, tell me she ain’t bein’ serious!_** ’ yelled an indignant bijuu yelled the elder didn’t care to reply, seemingly content to sleep.

 _‘Oh I am. I will annoy you in your mindscape and make sure you will never be able to annoy Gaara if you tell him. This is a surprise and I’ll be damned- you know what! I’ll seal you from being able to talk to him for 24 hours!’_ she yelled happily before slamming her hand against the bijuu’s tail and black ink appeared.

Kurama raised his head in interest, **_‘What does it do?’_**

She replied with a large smile on her face, _‘It stops spiritual beings- chakra or manmade- from talking within a person’s head. I made this so Sakura wouldn’t hear her split-personality whilst on recon mission. Because that personality is wacky.’_

 ** _‘I had assumed her and her personality merged…’_** he grumbled, ears perking when he noticed Shukaku couldn’t reply. **_‘I like this seal, you should use it on him more often. I think you’re ningen lover would like it as a present more than the one you already gave him.’_**

Naruto agreed but she’d be damned before she let him know that and simply appraised her hard work. The fact that she’d actually managed to transfer the seal like that was an achievement for her. Or it could have been because she had simply been obsessing about the seal so much she memorised it.

She turned and glared when she noticed something in his statement, _‘Jinchuriki! Not ningen!’_

He snorted in reply and pushed her out of their shared mindscape, thoroughly pleased to be Shukaku try and fail to talk to him.

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.

Two days later several Naruto’s could be found wondering around the village with clipboards and pens, taking notes of the necessary information such as the stability of the village if she made a tunnel, people who lived near dangerous areas, and general information about the land which she would need to know.

Gaara’s birthday had been a simple affair and much to her shock she found out it was the first birthday he had had in years, Naruto made a note to always come for his birthday and celebrate it for _days_.

By the time she arrived at the kazekage mansion it was 4 in the afternoon and she was about ready for a cup of coffee to rejuvenate her. As she made her way to the kitchen she heard voices, “You cannot allow her to carry on parading around our village like this Temari-sama.” She recognised the voice as the really annoying person on Suna’s council that kept saying no to her requests.

“This is going to be her home. She is giving a lot up for this treaty and it’s only fair that she be allowed to make changes to the village. And besides, she’s doing things that’ll benefit us in the long run.” Replied an irritated Temari.

“And we accept that little fact but she acts as if she owns the place!”

“Now- now tell me something council member. Naruto-hime did she or did she not first go to the council and ask for approval before actually doing anything?”

“Yes she did.” He begrudgingly replied, and Naruto could hear him grind his teeth together.

“So how is she owning the place if she asked for permission to do so beforehand?” when she received no answer she carried on, “We are on thin ice with Konoha council member, and you verbally harassing their princess. We have signed a new treaty with them and if I or any of my siblings think or believe you will be a threat to Lady Namikaze or to the treaty she helped put in place, we will hand you over for Konoha to decide your fate. And may I remind you they have a unit specified for torture and are not afraid to use them.” She left the threat hanging in the air and Naruto sensed someone behind her.

She smiled and turned around to face him. He looked like he had just gotten out of bed which was a normal thing she had noticed as he worked through the night and slept during the early hours of the morning, or at least tried to.

He was wearing a red v neck shirt with black shinobi trousers, the necklace she had given him rested between his collarbones, her chakra glowing within it. His eyes however seemed darker today, as if he had heard Orochimaru spilling his guts on what experiments he had run on those children before running away.

She furrowed her brows and reached up to touch his cheek, “Are you alright?”

Instead of answering he took her hand in his and dragged her to the kitchen, sitting her on the chair before making his way round to the cooker, teal eyes colder than the icy mountains of shimugakure when he turned around. “Counsel member. What are you doing here?”

The elder man gulped quietly however Naruto’s sensitive hearing caught it. “I was talking with Lady Temari about certain… matters.” He gave a fleeting glance at Naruto, a glance Gaara and Temari caught in on.

“By matters do you mean my fiancé?” if possible the room temperature dropped and Naruto found herself sighing in relief. A sound which Temari looked at her incredulously about.

The council member’s shoulders stiffened, “With all due respect, Gaara, she must learn her place and with the way you three children go about-”

“Children?” asked an amused Baki, a few feet away from him was Lady Chiyo and Kankuro. “These are the children of our yondaime and you treat them with respect.” He stated, humour long gone as his face hardened.

“The jinchuriki didn’t even follow commands when it was stated he should have attacked Konoha but instead he attacked Oto, our allies during the coup. Instead, for a girl, he went and-” Naruto tuned out the rest and raised a brow at him, wondering if he realised saying such things constituted as treason.

‘ _Ah screw it.’_ She thought before wrapping one of Kurama’s tails around him causing amused looks from the occupants in the room, “You know… there’s this clause that was added to treaty before it was sent to Suna which we added for the sake of the two kunoishi giving up their homes for another village…” she faded off when Gaara placed a food of onigiri in front of her and she gave him a kiss on the cheek. “It basically states that no one is allowed to outright disrespect us just because we’re foreign consuls. And that is what Temari and I are. We are both consuls. Can you tell me what that is shinobi-san?”

“An official appointed by a land to live in a foreign village or city to protect its citizens and interests there.” He spoke through clenched teeth, eyes glaring at the blonde who hummed in acknowledgement and didn’t say anything till she finished her first onigiri.

“So tell me… what are you trying to accomplish by disregarding that which you and your council agreed on? Because right now it looks like you are purposefully committing treason _and_ trying to instigate a war.”

She allowed her words to hang in the air and dropped it at that, of course she dropped him unceremoniously on the ground as well, just for good measure as she went back to eating the food Gaara and given her.

She tuned out the rest of the conversations going on around her and simply gave Gaara a knowing smile and wink before entering his mind-scape.

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.

She looked around and was… unsure what to feel. Gaara’s mind-scape consisted of sand. Everywhere. Not that her original mind-scape was any better but still.

 _‘How did you get in?’_ she turned around and saw Gaara standing behind her leaning against a sand pillar.

 _‘Shukaku’s got a bad habit of coming into my mind-scape to annoy Kurama and left a sort of passage for me to enter your mind-scape easier than it would have been otherwise.’_ She stated and chair formed through the sand.

She looked at Gaara and back to the chair then he answered her unasked question, _‘I made it so you can sit down. It’s safe and stable so you won’t sink.’_ She felt the temperature in his mind cool down and she was quite shocked her had such good control over this place considering he was unstable a few weeks ago.

_‘You have said that name before; Kurama, however you have ever stated who it is.’_

She blinked owlishly at him and replied with a nervous smile, _‘I didn’t realise. I told Temari and forgot to tell you… Kurama is Kyuubi’s name.’_

As if sensing his name had been called Kurama entered the mind-scape and Shukaku sat beside him. Naruto hadn’t even noticed the bijuu’s presence.

_‘Shukaku has been complaining about how you placed a seal on him to stop him from talking on the 19 th.’ _

She nodded and gave him a smile, _‘I didn’t want him to ruin the surprise party I had planned so I placed it on him. Whilst it wasn’t developed necessarily for bijuu it still worked and I’m very pleased about that.’_

_‘Are there many seal masters in Konoha?’_

She shook her head with a frown, _‘No. It was mostly and art the Uzumaki clan used and when they died the art practically died with them. Jiraiya-sensei is at level 12 but my dad was at the same level because he and my mum learnt together. The sandaime knows up to level 7 fuinjutsu since he never really learnt much about it. Kakashi-sensei knows up to level 6 I think but I’m- I_ was _training Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon the art before…’_  

_‘Could you teach me?’_

She looked up at him and blinked, unsure if she had heard him correctly, _‘You want to learn fuinjutsu?’_ when he nodded she asked, _‘Why?’_

He shrugged his shoulders and crouched down in front of her, _‘Fuinjutsu was a part of your clan, was it not?’_ when she nodded he continued, _‘You may be marrying into the Kazekage clan but that doesn’t mean you have to forgo your clans art. When we have children you will have more people to teach the art to as well.’_ He gave her a small smile which she returned, tears in her eyes as she leaned down and gave him a hug, simultaneously crushing him to her chest.

 


	25. Chapter 25

Gaara had been sound asleep when his sister ran into his room, clad in her nightgown and eyes wide- frantic. "We don't know where the council member went and we can't find Naruto either!"

He had been contemplating whether or not to simply go back to sleep however his sisters words caused him to sit up abruptly, "What happened to the ANBU we placed with him in his cell?"

Temari shook her head, "They were all knocked out by some poison but should be fine once they wake up."

The ground beneath them began to shake as Gaara's anger moved the sand below. Yells and worried shouts could be heard yet he didn't care. He closed his eyes and felt the sand, felt the chakra signatures from those on the sand and could feel nothing. "I cannot sense either of them on the sand so either he is in the air or he has already fled the village."

Kankuro appeared behind his sister, fully dressed for an attack and shook his head, "There's also the empty tunnels Naruto and her clones have been making. She's used an earth style jutsu which your sand senses can't tap into."

Temari looked to Kakuro and replied, "Not likely. Those are under strict observation by more than just ANBU. If he went into one of those tunnels one of the seals Naruto put in them would have gone off…"

She faded off when Sasuke appeared next to them all, hair dishevelled and he looked grumpy, "What are you guys talking about?"

They all shared a discreet look and his elder sibling's looks to him for support, "Naruto is missing. We are assuming she was taken by a member of the counsel who escaped from our prisons a short while ago." Sasuke's brows raised into the air and he covered his mouth to muffle his laughs.

"Gaara, is your bed warmer than it usually is?" Sasuke's question took him off guard, however he nodded nonetheless. Smirking he entered the jinchuriki's bedroom and gestured to the blankets, "One second." He removed the blankets from the end of the bed and all eyes fell on the blonde sleeping without a care in the world who was less than a meter away from him.

Temari and Kankuro smacked their forehead, "How the hell did she get into your bed without you noticing Gaara?" asked Temari and Gaara was unable to discern the emotion she was expressing.

Gaara blinked owlishly, unsure himself when the blonde had arrived into his room, nor how she managed to do so without waking him up. He was a very light sleeper due to the assassination attempts through the night and Shukaku never letting him sleep in peace as well. "I… am unsure…"

Sasuke let out a loud laugh which caused his sleeping fiancé to wake up, kunai in her hand and the other showed her claws. When she saw no immediate threat she rubbed her eyes and looked around the room, "What's up?" she asked as she stretched and Gaara couldn't help notice her top ride up showing the seal on her stomach to them.

Her words seemed to have had an effect on Temari as his sister marched over to Naruto, "What's up? We just found out that the council member we locked away earlier today escaped and we couldn't find you so we all assumed he kidnapped you!" she placed her hands on her hips as she stared irritably as the half sleeping blonde.

Naruto gave his sister a shy smile, "I came back here really late and wasn't paying much attention as I came back in. by the time I realised it wasn't in my room I was comfortable in the bed and figured I'd wake up in a few hours and it wouldn't matter… does anyone know how that guy escaped?"

Temari glared at her however after a few seconds her shoulders deflated and she shook her head. "Well if it makes you feel better, he can't leave the village without someone escorting him so he has to be here somewhere."

Kankuro appeared next to Temari, "What do you mean by that?"

She tilted her head, "I spoke to your council about a method we currently use in Konoha to keep whoever we have in our custody- within Konohagakure. It's a seal taken from the Uzumaki archives underground Uzushiogakure. It's sort of like a binding seal that keeps them bound to whatever the creator chooses. In this instance, I bound him to Sunagakure. He won't be able to leave the village unless someone else infuses the seal with chakra making it useless. Sadly there isn't a tracking seal on him so you'll have to find him the old fashioned way." she shrugged her shoulders and flopped back onto his bed, making herself comfortable and fell asleep within seconds.

Temari blinked a few times before looking incredulously at Sasuke, "Did she seriously just fall asleep?!"

"She's not supposed to raise up arms here in Suna and if she does it's a sure fire way to get her into trouble. The best way to keep herself out of trouble would be to sleep or eat." He replied with a shrug before leaving the room, the elder siblings following after him.

Gaara turned to look at Naruto as she slept. Her skin had become slightly more tanned with her long visits to the desert and her hair had grown longer after she had cut it so now it reached just passed her shoulder blades.

He reached his hand forward and stopped just when he reached her face, seemingly coming back to reality and got out of bed, making his way to the roof instead.

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"I don't see what the problem is. You found the council member, you found the guy that broke him out of the prison, all you need to do now is torture them to find out who ordered for him to be released." Spoke Naruto as she ate her omelettes, Sasuke doing the same whereas the sand siblings looked at her as if she had grown another head.

"The problem being, Hime-sama, is that we do not wish to set off whoever orchestrated the breakout." Spoke Baki as he stood across the counter, pointedly ignoring the food she had made for everyone.

She rolled her eyes at him, "Whoever orchestrated the whole thing already knows since the council member clearly hasn't left the village and met up with him. If you guys don't want to interrogate him, I'll gladly do the honours. T's been a while since T&I let me in for interrogations." She spoke back with a thoughtful look on her face. Now that she thought about it, they hadn't requested her help for two months. She'd pay a visit to Anko or Ibiki and ask what was up.

Baki, Temari, Kakuro and Gaara all blinked owlishly at her and the two leaf shinobi didn't get why. "They… allow you in… during interrogations?" asked Temari whose food fell out of her spoon.

Sasuke snorted and all eyes fell on him, "Naruto is pretty vicious and doesn't hold back. The pampered little adorable princess act she has is just that- an act. She is literally the demon she holds when she wants to be and that tends to be majority of the time. You guys are pretty lucky you've only ever seen her when she behaves. Otherwise there is no way in hell you'd want to marry her Gaara." He said the last sentence to Gaara before eating up yet another tomato.

Naruto would never understand his obsession with them but she didn't have room to talk with her obsession over ramen. She also didn't dispute Sasuke's statement since it was true.

Thankfully their conversation was dropped there and Naruto went back to work on the new seal she was working on as she tried to explain the dynamic of it to Sasuke. It was a pretty basic seal compared to the ones she personally used however the teme wanted to learn fuinjutsu and she had to start him with basic seals first.

Kankuro had also taken an interest in fuinjutsu as well but was taking slightly longer than Sasuke since he didn't have the help of the sharingan on his side to do all the memorising for him. Naruto would be a grand seals master if she had a sharingan.

' _ **Not a bad idea. We already know where to find a bunch of sharingans and all you need to do is get permission from an Uchiha, the hokage and a doctor to do the transplanting.'**_

' _You seem awfully pleased about the prospect of me having a sharingan. Is there something I'm missing?'_

' _ **Yes my foolish little host. You already know the sharingan can control me however if you had a sharingan the chances of you- and by default myself- being controlled by them is drastically less.'**_

Naruto couldn't help but roll her eyes, it seemed he was still salty over what had happened years ago but Naruto had to agree, it was a shiny little prospect and she definitely wanted to see where it would lead to. She'd speak to the necessary people later and try to get at least one sharingan eye transplanted, after all she was very persuasive when she wanted to be.

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Temari shifted on the grass as her 'date' laid languidly beside her. He was awake, but neither of them were saying anything till she decided to break the ice, "I'm seeing a little bit of a pattern in Konoha's clans. Most of you only have one or maybe two heirs." She pointed out, trying to make conversation, however she knew he wasn't really much for talking and she couldn't decide whether or not she liked that yet.

"That's an observation and not a question. Do you have a question?" he asked and she felt her eye twitch in response, not noticing she also had a small smile on her face as well.

"Since most clans have their own jutsu's or kekkei-genkai here in Konoha, why don't they have more heirs? We may not be at war but that could change and they may lose their heirs." She asked.

He didn't give her and immediate answer but when he did he gave a large sigh first, "I'm sure it has to do with something similar to what is going on with the Hyuuga clan. Hinata and Hanabi are constantly at battles over who should be clan heir which is a similar case with the Inuzuka clan. Hana was born first but since Lady Tsume also had Kiba, a male heir, many believe he should be clan heir."

She nodded in response, thinking about how to reply, "It makes sense but why not state that the first born will be clan head-"

For once he interrupted her without letting her finish her statement, "That wouldn't work either. Look at your case. You are first born to the Kazekage clan and ideally should have been made Kazekage and head of your clan however you will be moving to Konoha once you get married to one of our clan heirs." His jaw and fist tightened ever so slightly that if she hadn't been looking at him intently she would have missed it when he said that last part.

She looked at the scenery in front of her. It was beautiful in comparison to Suna. She loved her homeland, but Konoha was so much greener than the desert that she felt slightly upset at the prospect of Naruto giving this up for the sweltering heat of her home.

Deciding not to say anything else she shifted closer to the Nara, lifting his head onto her lap, ignoring his indignant yell and if anyone were to comment on her face, she would wholeheartedly deny that she was blushing because she did not blush.

They rested like that for a half hour and before she knew it, she had fallen asleep leaning against the tree, however when she was waking up, she noticed she was considerably more comfortable and a familiar scent greeted her. The scent made her hum as she smiled in to the pillow.

She instantly jolted when she registered her thoughts, reaching for her kunai pouch, ready to attack whoever had moved her until she felt a familiar pair of hands wrap around her wrist. Well, she said hands, more like the shadow of a familiar set of hands.

Looking up she noticed it was past sunset and it was quite dark, her armour had been removed however her normal clothes were still on her. Sighing she turned to look at Shikamaru. His hair was out of its usual ponytail and instead of his fishnet vest and flak jacket he wore a half open yukata with a red sash.

She blushed slightly when she realised he was basically matching her own outfit but mentally slapped herself, most likely his mother had bullied him into wearing it.

"How did we get here?" she decided to ask after five minutes of him staring at her.

He looked to the door and back to her, "I woke up a few hours ago and you were asleep. I let you sleep for another hour but it got a little cold so I carried you home." She noticed how he addressed his home as if it were her own as well. "And then I just put you here. Gaara came by earlier to check on you and left again with Naruto to shodai knows where." He shrugged in indifference and leaned against the wall which was when she noticed a picture frame on top of the mantle-piece.

It was Team 10's genin picture. Her face went from slightly pink to red in a matter of seconds when she realised why the scent had been familiar- it was Shikamaru's.

.

The following afternoon, if anyone were to be looking for Naruto, Gaara, Shikamaru or Temari, they would find all four of them eating together at a new restaurant that had opened. Well, they say new, but really Ichiraku had simply become fancier. Which, of course, demanded Naruto's immediate attention as soon as it had opened, and none of them had the heart to decline her when she said she had wanted to go on a double date there.

She seemed to be behaving herself though, much to Temari's surprise. She wasn't eating much and was showing a great deal of manners which was something she came to notice Naruto lacked when she was comfortable.

They had all finished a single bowl each when a Konoha ANBU operative whispered something to Naruto, and she had left them. She argued that she would pay for at least her part of the bill however Teuchi had said all four of their bowls would be on the house considering Naruto was a regular at their stand when it was only a stand.

This left Gaara with no date and he excused himself. Despite all his flaws and lack of knowledge, he knew when he would be the third wheel and clearly had no intention of being one.

Of course he didn't realise it was going to be awkward no matter if he stayed or not. The two of them ate quietly, Shikamaru paying before they made their way to Temari's apartment. She gave a smile as she bid the Nara goodbye, turning around to enter her home and was understandably shocked when he grabbed her wrist and spun her around, crushing her to him in a tight hug.

Slowly she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and leaned back just enough to give him a kiss on the cheek, "What's this for?" she murmured into his ear, unsure where this had suddenly come from.

His grip on her waist tightened but not painfully as he replied, "Kiba said something earlier and it ticked me off."

She blinked, not understanding what that had to do with anything, "What does that have to do with us?"

He leaned back slightly and rested his forehead on hers, "He made a… crude comment on your lack of… choice of a male yet and it irritated me for some reason." She could hear the underlying frustration in his usually bored voice but she could also detect an edge to it as well.

She looked into his brown eyes and saw what she could hear, a smile forming on her lips as she let out a small chuckle, "Shikamaru… Are you jealous?" she asked and her smiled widened when his eyes widened by a fraction.

Her smile was wiped off when she was suddenly against the wall, "This isn't funny Tem." He practically growled the sentence out as he bit her neck slightly. "You and I both know you've made your decision. Let the others know so I won't have to hear what things he-" he took a harsh breath and fisted his hands against the wall on either side of her. Her eyes softened when she heard his ragged breathing as he tried to fend off whatever his friends had said about her.

Deciding to not talk, her gently held his cheeks between her hands and leaned in to kiss him, and he leaned down as well, their lips ghosting each other before a throat cleared to their left.

Temari glared at the couple in front of her, no matter how much they denied it, they weren't being discreet about their relationship. Asuma Sarutobi and Kurenai Yuuhi stood in front of them, Kurenai looking thoroughly scandalised and Asume looking appreciatively at his student, clearly pleased with Shikamaru's boldness.

After ten seconds Shikamru hadn't released her and neither of the jonin had spoken so Shikamaru spoke instead, "Do you intend to stand and stare all day or did you interrupt us for a reason?"

He stood back and Temari could feel his insecurity and leaned her head onto his shoulder. He had gotten taller than her during the past few months so he now stood two and a half inches taller than her, much to her annoyance.

Asuma smirked as he took a breath of his cigarette, "Kakashi wants both of you in his office by 5PM. There you'll have a meeting with him, Gaara and Naruto. Don't be late. His words not mine" they turned to leave and when they got to the stairs, the Sarutobi heir smirked in their direction, "Have fun and be safe!"

If Shikamaru and Temari hadn't practically seen that comment coming they would have blushed like crazy, but seeing as they did see it coming, they didn't blush like academy fangirls.

.

.

.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N so I know this is waaaay later that I had said I would update but life got in the way. For all you lovely readers out there who waited patiently for this chapter I have given you a 3000 word chapter compared to my usual small 1500 word chapters in compensation for the long wait. I also gave you some ShikaTema because, come one, I wasn't going to pair my OTP with other people. Naruto I ship with different people and I won't fight you, say to me that ShikaTema should end up with other people and I will fight you.
> 
> On another note, I hope everyone who had exams passed, everyone who has had holidays enjoyed them and generally hope that everyone has enjoyed themselves.
> 
> Before I forget, I think I'll do one maybe two more chapters with a time-skip and finish this fanfiction...
> 
> Don't forget to comment. Till next time!


	26. Chapter 26

Naruto sat the in the seat Gaara, the godaime kazekage, usually sat rubbing her aching temples as she tried to digest what her to be in-laws were saying to her.

She sighed as she looked over to the sake bottle, tempted to down it even though it would do nothing for her. “Okay… let me see if I’m getting this right.” She looked to the two of them and they nodded in her direction, “Sasori and Deidara came to Suna.” She stopped and waited for their nod of affirmation. “You didn’t allow them access into the village.” again they nodded, this time slightly more hesitant. “In retaliation they broke into the village, took Gaara and took Lady Chiyo.” The siblings shared a glance at each other and nodded. “And instead of summoning me immediately, you called for Team 7. When you could have used the hiraishin kunai I gave you.” This time they gulped and nodded.

Sighing, she rubbed her temples harder. Getting up she stretched and took great pleasure in watching the siblings _flinch_ at the movement. In fact, several members of Suna’s council also flinched.

She looked to the computer, a device having just been given to them recently which allowed work to be done quicker and without the hassle of reading terrible handwriting. It also allowed them to communicate with others immediately in other areas.

Leaning over she turned it on and used the password only she, Gaara and Kankuro were aware of and typed a particular name, for a particular person. Looking up she stared impassively at the council members, “All of you can leave. Temari and Kakuro, stay.” They heeded her words and left post-haste.

Temari eyed her wearily, “Should this really be time for you to be making a conference call, Naruto?” she asked, but not in a snidely way, more so unsure and curious what the younger blonde would do. 

She gave a dry look to the elder blonde, “Yes Temari. This is in fact perfect time. At least this way I won’t have to waste time going there in person.” She muttered the last sentence to herself and became very pleased when the person on the other side finally accepted her call.

“I had assumed this call would come sooner.” Spoke the red head on the other side and Naruto gave a sheepish grin.

“Sorry, I just got to Suna like half an hour ago and got told Gaara was taken. By the way, what was that all about?” she gave a bemused smile as she watched Temari’s and Kankuro’s eyes widen, realising who she was talking to.

Nagato didn’t even blink, “We still need to have pretences up that we’re an all evil organisation, darling niece, and as such I need to take drastic measures.”

She raised a hand, “And I respect that wholeheartedly. You and your jolly band of vigilantes may do as they please, but can I have my fiancé back please? We’re a month and a half away from our wedding and I would like to get everything in order before then.”

She laced her fingers under her chin and waited for his reply, however instead of her uncle, it was a different red head. One who held teal eyes she could stare at all day and not give a damn. “How are you, hime? Have you eaten?”

She raised an amused brow at his question and behind her she could hear Shikamaru stifle his snicker, “You’ve just been kidnapped by my uncles vigilante group and you want to know if I’ve _eaten_?” she asked incredulously. Sure, Nagato wasn’t going to hurt Gaara but that didn’t mean he could take the situation lightly, similarly to how Naruto was taking it.

Gaara simply shrugged so she looked to Nagato who was too busy tending to Pein’s nails. She her head she glared at the pair, envious over their hair colour, “Right, Nagato. I hope you’re done with him because I’m bringing him home where I can put him to sleep.” She closed her eyes and focused on locating Gaara’s chakra, once she found it she located her chakra inside of him and hiraishined over there.

Neither of them jumped upon her arrival and she internally pouted, it was no fun popping up around them since they never reacted. She wrapped her arms around Gaara, not caring for their audience as she inhaled his scent from his neck, “Hmmm…. I missed you.”

She could feel him smile against her own neck, his arms tight around her waist, clutching her to him like a lifeline as she teleported them to their room. Initially they had separate rooms, however Gaara slept better with Naruto around and she preferred being next to him as much as she could.

Sitting atop him she smirked as he shifted to reach her, becoming frustrated when she evaded him.

Finally giving up he asked, “What is it you wish?” a wicked gleam entered her eyes as she bit her lip and he knew _exactly_ what she wished.

.

.

.

If Naruto was to be asked how she would describe her wedding she would have said ‘mythological’. Her wedding was together with Shikamaru and Temari’s and it made it larger.

It was always going to be big. They had an open ceremony in Takigakure with under 1500 people attending. There had been more- people coming and going and she was pleased that everyone had a good time. Even Onoki looked to be having fun at least until Sasuke had begun flirting with Kurotsuchi. Even Akatsuki had been there, though they had been hidden under blood henge’s. But what had drawn in everyone’s attention had been the nine tailed beasts and everyone’s summons having been there.

It had all been outdoors, the sun and clouds both out making it nice and warm but not too hot. She had worn a white, floor length dress with orange and blue embroidery whereas Temari had been more traditional and worn a white kimono with the Nara clan symbol on the back with deer antler patterns embroidered at the bottom. It didn’t sound pretty but it was beautiful on her.

Their first dances had been at the same time and slowly other couples had joined them as well. Gaara hadn’t been up for dancing very long and had insisted on them leaving early, however she had stated it would be rude considering the five kage and daimyo of each nation were there in attendance; they would have to ask permission to leave before they did so.

Shikamaru had been the biggest surprise, he hadn’t yawned once, he smiled at Temari the whole time, he never said troublesome and had stayed awake the whole way. Naruto had smiled at the sight, Shikamaru could deny it all he wanted but he loved Temari and would do anything to make her happy and doing all that on their wedding made her happy.

“You seem lost in thought there, Naruto.” Spoke Lord Fukasaku as he took a sip of sake.

She smiled at her elder and bowed slightly, “Just thinking about how amazing this whole wedding is. Its’ perfect.” Her smile was small but that showed how genuine it was and it grew bigger as familiar arms wrapped around her. Tilting her head to the side she gave her husband a kiss.

“I’m happy you’re enjoying yourself, hime.” He gave her neck a kiss and stayed in that position, moving his hand to her stomach, over her seal. “Did you speak with Tsunade?”

She shook her head, eyes watching her wedding with happiness, “I’ll speak with her after. I didn’t want a commotion which I know would happen if I said anything.” She paused and placed her hand over his wrist, “However I spoke to Kurama.”

His breathing hitched, even after all these years, after having made his peace with the bijuu he was unable to be comfortable with the idea of Naruto talking to Kurama freely like she did.

“What did he have to say?” his right hand ghosted her right arm, causing goose-bumps to form.

Leaning into him she smiled as she looked at his face, teal eyes staring intently into her cerulean ones. “He confirmed what we thought. It’s weakening but not enough for anything bad to happen.”

She watched as his eyes begun to gleam with a brightness she hadn’t seen since he officially proposed. Their marriage had been partly arranged so she hadn’t been expecting a proposal however she had received one right after her training trip with Jiraiya.

He was always happy and his eyes always showed it, however there were very few moments when he was so happy that his chakra surged and floated, just as it was now.

To anyone else, he would still look like an emotionless, homicidal jinchuriki he had been years ago however she knew different, as did his siblings.

She hadn’t expected what happened next. He turned her around and placed both hands on her hips before hoisting her in the air and spun her round, a smile on his face as he lowered her slightly to kiss her, whispering a single phrase that spoke a thousand words to her, “Thank-you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In reply to SilverShield: your comment has made me happy but also made me feel bad. Happy because I’m glad you like this enough to recommend it, but bad because I’ll be ending this within a few more chapters.   
> Also the last chapter(s) will be omake’s and I have opened a poll for your opinions on them but on ff. You can either enter by voting there or commenting here.  
> So the options are:  
> 1- Naruto and Gaara during her two year training trip.  
> 2- Naruto and Gaara a year after their wedding, with a small scene of ShikaTema.  
> 3- Naruto and all the couples going out together before the wedding.  
> 4- Something else- you can comment and I’ll try.


	27. omake Kurama

The brat was going to be the death of herself. Herself only since if she died he could be free, however their contract ensured he would make sure she survived. The girl made it seem like her blood wouldn’t heal herself.

Scoffing to himself he began to push out the poison she injected herself with, enjoying himself when she came into the seal to berate him for it.

Well, he wasn’t about to let the girl who held the key to his weekly freedom die now was he? He doubted that his next host would be so _generous_.

He bared his teeth at the thought, he was the almighty Kyuubi no Kitsune, he didn’t have to be at the beck and call of the Uzumaki clan yet here he was, continuously serving them.

.

.

.

As much as he hated to admit it, he liked her choice in specialization. Seduction and infiltration came hand in hand with deception and there was no creature better at deceiving than a fox.

His host was merely eleven years old and whilst she held the potential to have already graduated, the new law prohibited it. Apparently no one wanted a repeat of Itach Uchiha or Kakashi Hatake but Kurama didn’t see what all the fuss had been about.

The former had erased most of his enemies in a single night whilst the other wallowed in self-pity and sent himself of practically any suicidal mission that came ANBU’s way.

He recalled a time where Shinobi were far more revered and less… cat like. But alas, ever since Hashirama founded the village, the standards for shinobi had lessened and raised and different ways.

.

.

.

If someone were to ask Kurama, not that they would, he would adamantly deny ever having given his host any form of praise. But as it stood, no one would ask so he would admit it to himself.

His host was exceeding his expectations so far.

She could use the hiraishin, was good at fuinjutsu, made a contract with him, signed the gama contract, survived many assassination attempts on her own and was training herself well. Even if that damn monkey played a small part in her development.

Kurama had two vessels before, and neither of them had so much respect with their name and title of jinchuriki. Mito and Kushina’s statuses of jinchuriki had been on a need to now basis, only select few knew about it.

Yet here his host stood, proud in the hokage office after having tackled the most heinous of monsters Kurama had ever seen.

Paperwork.

She had filled in all the necessary forms, signed them herself and tracked the other people to sign them as well. Once her work was done she had tackled the monkey’s paperwork as well and he could safely say…

Paperwork was the equivalent evil to jubii.

.

.

.

Of all the people she could be put in a team with it had to be with an Uchiha! He shouldn’t have been nearly as angry as he was considering the blasted boy was Indara’s reincarnation, but he couldn’t help himself. The boy’s only good factor had to be the fact he was Itachi’s younger brother.

Kurama could have blessed Itachi Uchiha for killing off his clan and it had nothing to do with them traitorous, back stabbers to their village.

The Hatake wasn’t so bad considering he couldn’t control him with the sharingan he possessed, but the banshee was also too much. And that was not because she was a fangirl of the Uchiha- no it was because she had pink hair.

 _Pink_.

 _Nothing_ about that was natural.

.

.

.

Kurama grumbled in the seal.

He didn’t like this situation.

He didn’t like the Uchiha, the yondaime, he didn’t like Mito or Kushina but this took the metaphorical cake.

His current host was entranced with his _brother’s_ host. It wasn’t right and didn’t set right in his stomach.

It was practically _incest_ \- kind of.

Of course, if he mentioned that to his foolish host now she wouldn’t see reason. She was a kunoichi of a _clan_ , incest was sadly not looked down upon so he would have to try another tactic.

He considered forcing her into a coma till the boy left but thought against it, he would never hear the end of it if he messed with her chance to become chunin.

It was embarrassing, his host- the _reincarnation_ of _Ashura_ was besotted with his brother’s host. Who was _gender-bending_ \- if he ever got his paws on Shukaku he was going to _skin_ the damnable tanuki. He was an _embarrassment_ to the nine bijuu. 

They were beings of chakra who could destroy and level _nations_ with a flick of their tails or breathing out a bijuu-dama and his youngest brother is getting kicks out of screwing over the mind of his host.

It was a tempting idea however Kurama had class and he knew having an insane host was not a good thing. Insanity was a signed death warrant or a one way ticket to T&I.

Once again he glared at the red headed male- if he tried anything with his host he may just have to skin him alive and eat his flesh.

Satisfied by the mental image he curled up and went back to sleep.

.

.

.

Kurama felt like killing Shukaku. Did his brother not realise that by hurting his host he was subjecting his eldest brother to the pain of having to heal her. He most likely _did_ understand it and was probably just doing it to torment him.

Two people could play at that. However… Kurama didn’t fancy having his host mad at him since she was literally the key to his freedom.

Still, he could do something to annoy the tanuki without facing the wrath of his host. He sent unpleasant images of Kushina and Mito doing the do with their respective husbands. Of course, he made sure Shukaku’s host wouldn’t see those images.

He wanted to torment Shukaku and not the sand boy.

.

.

.

Kurama was cackling in glee. He knew there was something not right with the boy and now he had proof! The visions proved they were working alongside Orochimaru and that is a declaration of war if he ever heard of one.

But he felt the need to inform his foolish host on this since she was still helping him! How much information does she need to know how bad he is for her? For them?

Okay, he didn’t dislike the sand boy because of his people working with Orochimaru but because he was his youngest brother’s host. Besides that little yet very important detail, he would have to admit having taken a liking to the mass murdering red headed boy.

He particularly liked the part of the mass murdering.

Once again he wondered if he would be able to convince his host to find a mate within the sand boy’s brother, the puppet wielder since he seemed… less jinchuriki.

.

.

.

Kurama was going to enjoy this, after all it wasn’t often Naruto allowed him control over her body.

Her eyes turned from cerulean to red with slits, nails turned to claws, teeth to fangs and her whiskers became more prominent. None of his hosts had ever managed to make this look seem as feral as Naruto did.

Gaara sat before him behind the kazekage desk, fingers interlaced under his chin as he watched the two of them merge.

“You have known my host for some time now, sand boy.” Spoke Kurama, his own deep voice coming out rather than her female voice.

Gaara did not reply for it was a fact and not a question, “You have known her and… been with her. She loves you as she has said on several occasions.” He glared at the godaime yet he showed no reaction.

Kurama walked closer, leaning into the boy’s personal space yet he did not move, “If you should ever upset her or cause her pain- other than childbirth of course- I will come out of this seal and skin you alive. Once I have done that, I’d hang you by your entrails for the world to see before I devour you. Are we clear?”

Gaara raised a non-existent brow, his gravelly voice replying, “I would gladly allow you to do that as well… Kurama. I have no wish to upset or cause her pain. She is my light and she holds my heart within her hand. If she wished, I would allow her to kill me if it meant her happiness.”

Quite the bold statement, if Kurama did say so himself. To love someone that much was on par with the annoying feelings Itachi held for his annoying younger brother.

Kurama sighed internally, he would have preferred his brat to be with the elder Uchiha, this way if they had children and one was made his jinchuriki, the sharingan will have no effect on him! 

Hah!

But alas she chose the sand boy, however, “I approve.” He replied. Gaara had better cherish those words because they were the only kind words he was going to hear from the nine tails.

Ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first omake. I will be making either three or max four more.


	28. Omake pregnant

It was three months after the wedding and Naruto wasn't complaining.  _Shodai_  forbid, she was  _not_  complaining. She loved every minute of being with Gaara and the citizens of Suna.

Sure, she missed her home however the people she had spent these few years with made Suna her new home. That and all the work they had done to the desert had done a lot of good.

As an off duty kunoichi, she didn't have much to do and Gaara forbid her from using much chakra if she could avoid it- so no training. But she was allowed to use her chakra for things like roof running or shunshin under the condition she didn't sprain her body.

Why was Gaara placing such restrictions on her you may be wondering? The day of their wedding Naruto had found out through Kurama that she was pregnant.

Author-san was a tad-bit upset when no one noticed with her subtle hints but back to the omake.

She had humoured her husband, not arguing as he fussed over her knowing why he was doing so. It wasn't because he thought her weak but because of what had happened to his mother.

With that in mind, she had made her mind up that she would allow him to do as he pleased this pregnancy and when she proved to him that she was not in any danger she might be able to get some leeway in the next pregnancy.

She often spent her time with Gaara anyway, helping him with council matters and the paperwork he had to do as well. Without Temari he had, at first, been at a loss however Temari had taught Naruto well.

Another thing Gaara had put a limit on was her experiments. She wasn't allowed to handle dangerous substances alone and if she did she had to have her chakra cloak activated at all time.

All in all, she found the terms and conditions pretty fair and easy to adapt to. Though she still went a bit overboard with the chakra thing.

Whenever she wasn't doing anything official she was working on her fuinjutsu. Once Gaara had walked in on her doing one and had asked what it was for and the answer had made him angry.

She had explained to him it was a jinchuriki seal. Should a situation occur where their bijuu or the bijuu of other jinchuriki came loose they would need a new host and her seal was the perfect thing.

Why was he mad? Because he didn't want to subject anyone to the life they had lived in their early lives. Which in hindsight made sense but she knew that ideology would get someone killed. He lost it even more when she said it was also precaution if something happened to her in childbirth.

Which created the situation she was currently in. He had taken to ignoring her and had it been a day or so she could have managed.

But it was over a week.

One whole week and he hadn't said a word to her. He didn't look at her, locked her out of the office, and wouldn't even go into their shared bedroom and his chakra from her to the point not even her senjutsu could reach him.

It hurt, more than she cared to admit. She had once told Gaara she feared people ignoring her, feared people would disapprove or hate her for what she was- for what she would do and here he was, practically slapping her fear in her face.

After the first day her blood ran cold and she was constantly throwing up, something she had not done even during the beginning of the trimester. It was a testimony for how scared she was.

She had tried approaching his office, however she was told by his guards she was not allowed in to see him and she had felt like crying into a corner, but she was a kunoichi with pride. However, when she returned to their home she hadn't gone into a corner to cry but their bedroom, waiting for him to come home but he never did.

If her husband was going to ignore she would simply make it easier for him to do so by leaving the country for a bit. She doubted he would even noticed her absence with the way he was going.

Now you may be wondering how she was going to get out of Suna without the gate guards notifying their kazekage?

One word.

Hiraishin.

She had come to Konoha mostly because Tsunade and Sakura were here and they were the best medics around. When she told Tsunade of her medical issues she had been forced into the hospital to seek immediate medical attention.

They had done over fifty different tests yet they had found nothing, despite the blood she was vomiting. Tsunade had said it might be due to stressing herself, worrying over the baby, and the seal having an effect on her.

Kurama had spoken insistently that he should be allowed to partake in some of her husband's flesh as he had once stated he would do should he ever hurt her and it had taken some time to convince him otherwise.

However after one week of being ignored in Suna and spending three days in Konoha catching up with her friends came a surprise.

Kakashi had been on duty to watch her but since he had hokage duties to attend to the two of them were in his office and she had decided to help him with his paperwork when a dishevelled, messily clothed and highly emotional godaime kazekage arrived via the  _window_.

He was panting as he stood leaning a hand for support on the window frame. He didn't exactly have god-like stamina that the Uzumaki clan had after-all.

Naruto stayed seated in the hokage seat as she moved a paper onto the finances pile before moving onto the next one, trying to ignore the erratic heartbeat of her husband.

"Hokage-sama… could I be left alone with my wife?" then he added, "Please?" Naruto refrained from looking up in shock, Gaara never said please. It went against the way he was raised.

Kakashi seemed to weigh his options of staying and aggravating the kazekage or go along with his students revenge. Deciding against revenge he gave a small inclination with his head before poofing out of the office, his ANBU leaving with him.

Not a moment later she found herself being held tightly to her husband's chest, one of his hands wrapped tightly in her hair and the other around her waist, yet he was careful not to cause discomfort to her very small baby bump.

"I'm sorry." He breathed out before gulping heavily, "I shouldn't have ignored you like that. It wasn't right. I understand why you were doing it but it… after us I thought there would be no need for another jinchuriki… but. I can't- I can't lose you after just getting you. I love you and I'm so sorry." He let go of her to kneel before her, head pressed against her stomach.

"I shouldn't have put you through that, ignoring you in your state especially considering how you were raised in your early childhood. It must have hurt, but I want you to know I don't hate you. I don't despise you. All I feel is love.

"You don't know how I felt when Kankuro came back from our home and told me you weren't there. I sent the guards to scour the entire village and when they couldn't find you I looked myself. No one had seen you in days. I questioned the men I stationed as your guards and they said you used the hiraishin.

"When I asked why I wasn't informed they said because I was avoiding you. It was like a slap to the face, especially when they said to me you hadn't been well. I felt like someone had placed a rock over my heart and let it fall into my stomach." He gave her clothed stomach a kiss, "Can you forgive me? Please?"

Now how could she refuse those beautiful eyes so full of love and sadness? Slowly she leaned down and gave him a kiss directly over the love katakana on his forehead, wrapping her arms around him.

Not a moment after she was lifted off the ground and spun around in circles however when he stopped he didn't lower her, "Would you like to stay in Konoha a bit more? I have Kanuro to deal with the village business for a week or so." He added, and Naruto nodded.

It had been a while since they had spent time together on a date, not that they could in her current state.

Just then her stomach decided to remind her of her medical problems as she ran into the adjoining bathroom, throwing up in the sink. Once again it wasn't food but blood and thick black lines that she threw up.

Gaara was behind her not even a second later, one hand holding her hair out of her face and the other rubbing her back in a manner she found soothing. He laced his fingers with his chakra, warming up her back and she found it very soothing, and a moment later she stopped puking but did gag a few times.

She brushed her teeth with a spare toothbrush and cleaned up her mess in the sink before turning to her worried husband and gave him a sad smile, "I'm gonna have to stay in Konoha till further notice. Granny's trying to find out what's wrong with me. You'll have to return without me."

Gaara held her tightly in his arms at that, clearly not liking that she couldn't stay by his side- or at least she assumed. "Could Tsunade or Sakura not come to Suna and help you there?" he grunted as he hoisted her within his arms, gently carrying her onto the sofa at the corner of the room.

She shrugged her shoulders, "I could ask." He leaned down and gave her a kiss, placing his head on her lap as she fiddled with his hair.

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Naruto gulped from within her mindscape. Whilst she had mostly forgiven Gaara for ignoring her,  _Kurama_  hadn't. Something he was quick to remind the ichibi jinchuriki about very often- which of course pissed Naruto off since it was her body he was taking over.

Why the hell he couldn't just go through their seals and talk to Gaara in his mindscape was beyond her.

Currently, he was sitting across her husband glaring at him, causing the kazekage to continuously shuffle uneasily, along with his guests and guards. Baki had entered earlier and his chakra had jumped when he had seen them. (Them being Naruto and Kurama)

The promise to not cause him bodily harm still stood but Kurama liked to cause him other types of harm. Making him feel award was high on the list along with taking over her body at night to make him sleep alone.

Which Naruto thought was a bit excessive considering he liked sleeping beside her as it helped him sleep better at night.

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Four months later and the couple came for a surprise. She had gone into premature labour, nearly two months early and she had been so frightened by that. She could have sworn that she and every Suna citizen was praying that everything would be alright.

Tsuande and Shizune had been there as her doctors throughout her pregnancy and had been equally shocked. She hadn't been pregnant with one child but two.

Twins.

One boy and one girl.

They had both gotten Gaara's red hair, and her whisker marks. They hadn't opened their eyes yet so they had yet to discover what colour their eyes would be. They also got her tan skin. Both, thankfully, had eyebrows, something Naruto had been teasing Gaara about lately.

Smiling she held her babies to her as they suckled, not caring in the least about her surroundings at the moment.

She looked at Gaara, giving him a broad smile as he cried into her lap, gently as to not apply pressure there. "Thank-you. Thank-you for loving me and giving me a family." Slowly as to not disturb their feeding children he leaned over to give her a kiss before holding her to him, leaning her head on his chest as he used a sand shunshin to take them out of the cave she had given birth.

After-all, one could never be too careful even with Sasuke, Itachi, Tsunade, Jiraiya, Nagato, Konan and Gaara protecting her as she gave birth.

Yeah, not overkill at all and they certainly didn't attract any attention. Did anyone notice the sarcasm in the sentence?

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**A/N Sorry for the wait but life has been a bitch lately is all I have to say for myself. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and don't forget to comment! Till next time!**


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